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ARCHBISHOP USHER'S

ANSWER TO A JESUIT;

WITH

OTHER TRACTS ON POPERY

CAMBRIDGE:
PRINTED AT THE PITT PRESS, BY JOHN SMITH,
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY.

J. & J. J. DEIGHTON, CAMBRIDGE;


AM) J. \V. PARKER, WEST STRAND, LONDON.
M.DCCC.XXXV.
ADVERTISEMENT.

JAMES USHER was born in Dublin, January 4, 1580,


and was successively Provost of Trinity College 1610, Bishop
of Meath 1620, and Archbishop of Armagh 1624. He died
March 21, 1655-56.

The principal Treatise in this volume, The Answer to

a Jesuit's Challenge, was first published by the learned


Author in Dublin in 1624, when he was Bishop of Meath;
and was reprinted in London in 1625. The third edition
followed in 1631, "corrected and enlarged by the Author;"
and the fourth in 1686, after his death, professing to be " cor-
rected and augmented from a copy left under the Author's
own hand." The augmentations, however, in this last edition
amount to very little, and the corrections to almost less than

nothing, as the errors of the third edition are very generally


retained, and innumerable others of the grossest kind are
superadded, so as to render the book almost illegible. Be-
sides this, the Speech in the Castle-Chamber and Sermon
before the Commons, which had been printed with the edition
of 1631, are omitted; and also a few passages in the Answer
to the Jesuit, which possibly the Author may have designed
to omit in his last revision but the present Editor has
;

retained them, as not thinking it safe to omit any thing of


this invaluable writer upon the mere authority of an edition
so shamefully inaccurate. The passages alluded to the Reader
will find pointed out by notes in the margin.

The
Jesuit, whose Challenge called forth this noble
Answer, was William Malone, though the initials affixed to
his Challenge are W. B. The reason of this discrepancy
I cannot explain. The same man published a Reply to
Usher's Answer, " permissu Superiorum," in the year 1627,
in the Preface to which he has
given an account of the
IV ADVERTISEMENT.

whole circumstance, as having originated in a remark made


to him by a Protestant Knight, Sir Piers Crosby, " con-

cerning the alteration of faith and religion in the Roman


Church." The Reply
occupies upwards of 700 very closely-
printed pages; and the argument of it is helped out by
whatever prejudice can be excited in its favour in the outset
by a miserable pun in the title-page, (If ye have ten thou-
sand USHERS in Christ, yet not many FATHERS,) and a
grotesque vignette intended to represent the delightful unity
found in the Roman Catholic Church, and the discord of
what he " the
jarring synagogues of severed novellers."
calls
To this latter device he seems to attach considerable im-
portance from the satisfaction with which he speaks of it
in his as "
Preface, unto the
representing of the
very eyes
discreet Reader" this comparative view of the one side and
the other.

It does not appear that the Archbishop considered any


other rejoinder necessary, than that which is incidentally
contained in the enlarged edition of his Treatise published
four years subsequent to the Jesuit's Reply.

The other treatises contained in the present volume require


no explanation beyond what is furnished
by the Author himself
in his Dedication, &c. But the " Discourse of the Religion
professed by Irish" must be regarded as an
the Ancient
invaluable supplement to the more general treatise on Popery,
as it enters largely into the question of the Pope's Supremacy,
which a point that had not been brought forward in the
is

Jesuit's Challenge ; and its re-publication at the present crisis


will be considered not unseasonable, especially as its statements
on some points of leading importance are uncontradicted by
historians on the other side.

J. S.
CAMBRIDGE, May, 1835.

ERRATUM.
In page 185, note 72, correct as follows :

xom K^ND DITI jin-wai jinnm-n pnnu>33 Knbx K*n mx


CONTENTS.

PAGK
AN Answer to a Challenge made by a Jesuit in Ireland. ... 1

A Discourse of the Religion anciently professed by the Irish


and British 515

A Speech in the Castle-Chamber at Dublin, at the censuring


of certain Officers who refused to take the Oath of
Supremacy 641

A Sermon preached before the Commons' House of Parliament,


the 18th of February, 1620 651

A Brief Declaration of the Universality of the Church of


Christ, and the Unity of the Catholic Faith professed
therein : A Sermon before the King's Majesty, the
20th of June, 1624 689
AN ANSWER
TO

A CHALLENGE
MADE BY A JESUIT IN IRELAND:

WHEUE I N

THE JUDGMENT OF ANTIQUITY IN THE POINTS QUESTIONED IS TRULY


DELIVERED, AND THE NOVELTY OF THE NOW ROMISH
DOCTRINE PLAINLY DISCOVERED.

From the beginning it was not so. MATTH. XIX. 8.


TO

HIS MOST SACRED MAJESTY.

JAMES,
BY THE GRACE OF GOD
KING OF GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND IRELAND,
DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, <kc.

MOST GRACIOUS AND DREAD SOVEREIGN,

WE recorded for the everlasting honour


find it

]
of Theodosius the younger, that it was his use to reason

with his Bishops of the things contained in the holy Scrip-

tures, as if he himself had been one of their order ; and


of the Emperor Alexius in latter days, that '-whatsoever
time he could spare from the public cares of the common-

wealth, he did wholly employ in the diligent reading of


God^s book, and in conferring thereof with worthy men,
of whom his court was never empty. How little inferior,
or how much your Majesty is to either
superior rather,
of these in this kind of praise, I need not speak it is :

acknowledged even by such as differ from you in the point


3
of religion, as a matter that hath added more than ordinary
lustre of ornament to your Royal estate, that you do not
forbear so much as at the time of your bodily repast, to

have, for the then like feeding of your intellectual part,


1

your Highness" table surrounded with the attendance and


conference of your grave and learned Divines.
What inward joy my heart conceived, as oft as I have
had the happiness to be present at such seasons, I forbear
to utter: I will say with Job, that *the ear which
only
1
Socrat. Histyfib. 3
vii. cap. 22. Jo. Brereley, in his Epistle before
-
Euthyni. Zugaben. in Pra-tat. Dog- St Augustine's Religion.
matics; Panoplhr. 1
Job xxix. 11.
X THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

heard you blessed you ; and the eye which saw you, gave
witness to you. But of all other things which I observed,

your singular dexterity in detecting the frauds of the


Romish Church, and untying the most knotty arguments
of the sophisters of that side, was it (I confess) that I

admired most, especially where occasion was offered you


to utter your skill, not in the word of God alone, but
also in the antiquities of the Church; wherein you have
attained such a measure of knowledge, as (with honour to

God, I trust I may speak it, and without flattery to you)


in a well studied Divine we would account very com-

mendable, but in such a Monarch as yourself almost


incredible. And this is one cause, most gracious Sovereign,
beside my general duty, and the many special obligations
whereby I am otherwise bound unto your Majesty, which
hath emboldened me to entreat your patience at this time,

in vouchsafing to be a spectator of this combat, which I

am now entered into with a Jesuit, who chargeth us to


disallow many chief Articles, which the Saints and Fathers
of the primitive Church did generally hold to be true;
and undertaketh to make good, that they of his side do
not disagree from that holy Church, either in these, or in

any other point of religion.


Now if a
true man do only attend unto the
it is,

bare sound of the word, (as in the question of Merit, for

example,) or to the thing in general, without descending


into the particular consideration of the true ground thereof,
(as in the matter of praying for the dead,) he may easily
be induced to believe, that in divers of these controversies
the Fathers speak clearly for them and against us: neither
is there
any one thing that hath won more credit to that
religion, or more advanced it in the consciences of simple
men, than the conformity that it retaineth in some words
and outward observances with the ancient Church of Christ.
Whereas, if the thing itself were narrowly looked into, it
THE KI'ISTI.E DEDICATOR Y. \1

would be found that they have only the shell without the
kernel, and we the kernel without the shell; they having
retained certain words and rites of the ancient Church,
but applied them to a new invented doctrine and we on ;

the other side having relinquished these words and ob-

servances, but retained nevertheless the same primitive


doctrine, unto which by their first institution they had
relation.

The more count myself happy, that


cause have I to

am to answer of these matters before a king that is able

to discern betwixt things that differ, and hath knowledge


5
of all these questions, before whom therefore I may speak
boldly ; because I am persuaded that none of these things
are hid from him. Foryour it is not of late days that

Majesty hath begun to take these things into your con-


sideration from a child have you been trained up to this
:

warfare; yea, before you were twenty years of age, the


Lord had taught your hands to fight against the man of
sin, and your fingers to make battle against his Babel.
Whereof your Paraphrase upon the Revelation of St John
is a memorable monument left to all
posterity ; which I

can never look upon, but those verses of the poet run

always in my mind :

Csesaribus virtus contigit ante diem;

Ingenium coeleste suis velocius annis


Surgit, et ignavae fert mala damna morac. OVID.

How constant you have been ever since in the profession

and maintenance of the truth, your late protestation, made


unto both the houses of your Parliament, giveth sufficient
evidence. So much whereof as may serve for a present
6
antidote against that false and scandalous Oration spread

amongst foreigners under your Majesty's sacred name, I

humbly make bold to insert in this place, as a perpetual

testimony of your integrity in this behalf :

6
5
Acts xx vi. 2(5. Merc. Gallobelgic. Ann. 1623.
Xll THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

" 7
What my books do declare,
religion is, my my pro-
fession and my behaviour do shew : and I
hope in God,
I shall never live to be thought otherwise ; sure I am I

shall never deserve it. And for my part I wish that it

might be written in marble, and remain to posterity, as

a mark upon me, when I shall swerve from my religion :

for he that doth dissemble with God, is not to be trusted

by man. My Lords, I protest before God, my heart hath


bled, when I have heard of the increase of Popery and :

God is
my judge, it hath been so great a grief unto me,
that it hath been like thorns in mine eye*, and pricks in

my sides ; so far have I been, and ever shall be, from

turning any other way. And, my Lords and Gentlemen,


you all shall be my confessors : if I knew any way better

than other to hinder the growth of Popery, I would take it:


and he cannot be an honest man, who knowing as I do, and
being persuaded as I am, would do otherwise."
As you have so long since begun, and happily con-
tinued, so go on, most renowned King, and still shew,
yourself to be a Defender of the faith :
fight the Lord's
battles courageously, honour him evermore, and advance
8
his truth, that when you have fought this good fight, and
finished your course, and kept the faith, you may receive
the crown of righteousness, reserved in heaven for you :

for the obtaining of which double blessing, both of grace


and .of glory, together with all outward prosperity and
happiness in this life, you shall never want the instant

prayers of

Your Majesty's most faithful Subject,

and humble Servant,

JA. MIDENSIS.

7
His Majesty's Answer to the Petition of the Parliament touching Recusants,
April 23, 1624. a
2 Tim . iv> 7> 8>
TO THE READER

IT is now about as I gather by the reckoning


six years,
laid down in the 23rd
page of this book, since this following
Challenge was brought unto me from a Jesuit and received ;

that general Answer, which now serveth to make up the


first chapter only of this present work. The particular
points which were by him but barely named, I meddled
not withal at that time ; conceiving it to be his part (as in
the 31st page is touched) who sustained the person of the
assailant, to bring forth his arms, and give the first onset ;
and mine, as the defendant, to repel his encounter after-
wards. Only I then collected certain materials out of the
Scriptures and writings of the Fathers, which I meant to
make use of for a second conflict, whensoever our Challenger
should be pleased to descend to the handling of the par-
ticular articles by him proposed ; the truth of every of
which he had taken upon him
to prove by the express
testimonies of the Fathers of the primitive Church, as also

by good and certain grounds out of the sacred Scriptures,


if the Fathers' authority would not suffice.

Thus matter lay dead for divers years together ;


this
and so would still have done, but that some of high place
in both kingdoms, having been pleased to think far better
of that I had done than the thing deserved,
little which
advised mego to
forward, and to deliver the judgment
of antiquity touching those particular points in controversy,
wherein the Challenger was so confident that the whole
current of the Doctors, Pastors and Fathers of the primitive
Church did mainly run on his side. Hereupon I gathered
my scattered notes together, and as the multitude of my
employments would give me leave, now entered into the
handling of one point, and then of another; treating of
XIV TO THE READER.

each, either more


briefly or more largely, as the opportunity
of my
present leisure would give me leave. And so at last,
after many interruptions, I have made up, in such manner
as thou seest, a kind of a doctrinal history of those several

points, which the Jesuit culled out as special instances of


the consonancy of the doctrine now maintained in the Church
of Rome with the perpetual and constant judgment of all

antiquity.
The doctrine that here I take upon me to defend,
(what different opinions soever I relate of others,) is that
which by public authority is
professed in the Church of
England, and the book of Articles agreed
comprised in

upon in the
Synod held at London in the year 1562 ; con-

cerning which I dare be bold to challenge our Challenger


and all his accomplices, that they shall never be able to prove,
that there is
any one article of religion disallowed
either
therein, which Saints
theand Fathers of the primitive
Church did generally hold to be true, (I use the words of
my challenging Jesuit,) or any one point of doctrine allowed,
which by those Saints and Fathers was generally held to
be untrue. As for the testimonies of the authors which I
allege, I have been careful to set down in the margin their
own words in their own language, (such places of the Greek
Doctors only excepted, whereof the original text could not
be had,) as well for the better satisfaction of the readers,
(who either cannot come by that variety of books, whereof
use here made, or will not take the pains to enter into
is

a search of every particular allegation,) as for the


curious

preventing of those trifling quarrels that are commonly made


against translations : for if it fall out, that word be not
every where precisely rendered by word, (as who would tie

himself to such a pedantical observation?) none but an idle


caviller can object, that this was done with any purpose to

corrupt the meaning of the author; whose words he seeth


laid down before his eyes, to the end he may the better

judge of the translation, and rectify it where there is

cause.

Again, because it is a thing very material in the historical


handling of controversies, both to understand the times
wherein the several authors lived, and likewise what books
be truly or falsely ascribed to each of them for some direc-
;
TO THE HEADER. XV

tion of the reader in the first, I have annexed at the end


of this book a chronological catalogue of the authors cited
therein ; wherein such as have no number of years affixed
unto them, are thereby signified to be incerti temporis ; their
age being not found by me, upon this sudden search, to
be noted by any and for the second, I have seldom
:

neglected in the work itself, whensoever a doubtful or sup-

posititious writing was alleged, to give some intimation


whereby might be discerned, that
it itwas not esteemed to
be the book of that author, unto whom it was entitled.
1
The exact discussion as well of the authors times, as of the
censures of their works, I refer to my Theological Biblio-

theque ; if God hereafter shall lend me life and leisure to


make up that work, for the use of those that mean to give
themselves to that noble study of the doctrine and rites of
the ancient Church.
In the mean time I commit this book to
thy favourable
censure, and thyself to God's gracious direction earnestly ;

advising thee, that whatsoever other studies thou intermittest,


the careful and con scion able reading of God's book may
never be neglected by thee. For whatsoever becometh of
our disputes touching other antiquities or novelties ; thou
mayest stand assured, that thou shalt there find so much
l

by God's blessing, as shall be able to make thee wise unto


2
salvation, and to build thee up, and to give thee an in-
heritance among all them that are sanctified. Which, next
under God's glory, is the utmost thing (I know) thou
aimest at and for the attaining whereunto I heartily wish,
;

3
that the word of Christ may dwell in thee richly in all
wisdom.

2 3
1
2 Tim. iii. 15. Acts xx. 32. Coloss. iii. 16.
CONTENTS OF CHAPTERS.

CHAPTER I.
PAOl

A GE NE RAL Ans wer to the Jesuit's Challenge x 1

CHAPTER II.

Of Traditions 31

CHAPTER III.

Of the Real Presence 41

CHAPTER IV.

Of Confession 74

CHAPTER V.

Of the Priest's Power to forgive Sins 99

CHAPTER VI.

Of Purgatory 150

CHAPTER VII.

Of Prayer for the Dead 168

CHAPTER VIII.
Of Limbus Patrum, and Christ's Descent into Hell 238

CHAPTER IX.
Of Prayer to Saints 362

CHAPTER X.
Of Images 430

CHAPTER XI.
Of Free Will 445

CHAPTER XII.
Of Merits .
472
THE

JESUIT'S CHALLENGE.

How shall I answer to a Papist, demanding this question?

YOUR Doctors and Masters grant, that the Church of


Rome for 400 or 500 years after Christ did hold the true
religion. First, then, would I fain know, what Bishop of
Rome did first alter that religion, which you commend in
them of the 400 years?
first In what Pope's days was the
true religion overthrown in Rome?
Next, I would fain know, how can your religion be
true, which disalloweth of many chief articles, which the
Saints and Fathers of that primitive Church of Rome did
generally hold to be true ?
For they of your side, that have read the Fathers of
that unspotted Church, can well testify, (and if any deny
it, it shall be
presently shewn,) that the Doctors, Pastors
and Fathers of that Church do allow of traditions that :

they acknowledge the real presence of the body of Christ


in the Sacrament of the altar: that they exhorted the people
to confess their sins unto their ghostly Fathers that they :

affirmed, that Priestshave power to forgive sins: that they


taught, that there is ; that prayer for the dead
a Purgatory
is both commendable and godly ; that there is Limbus
Patrum; and that our Saviour descended into hell to
deliver the ancient Fathers of the Old Testament, because
before his Passion none ever entered into heaven: that

prayer to Saints and use of holy images was of great


account amongst them that man hath free-will, and that for
:

his meritorious works he receiveth, through the assistance of


God's grace, the bliss of everlasting happiness.
Now would I fain know, whether of both have the true
religion, they that hold all these above-said points, with the
primitive Church ; or they that do most vehemently con-
tradict and gainsay them? they that do not disagree with
that holy Church in
any point of religion; or they that
agree with it but in very few, and disagree in almost all ?
2 THE JESUIT'S CHALLENGE.

Will you say, that these Fathers maintained these opinions


contrary to the word of God ? Why, you know that they were
the pillars of Christianity, the champions of Christ's Church,
and of the true Catholic Religion, which they most learnedly
defended against divers heresies; and therefore spent all their
time in a most serious study of the holy Scripture. Or will
you say, that although they knew the Scriptures to repugn,
yet they brought in the aforesaid opinions by malice and
corrupt intentions ? Why, yourselves cannot deny, but that
they lived most holy and virtuous lives, free from all mali-
cious corrupting or perverting of God's holy word, and by
their holy lives are now made worthy to reign with God in
his glory. Insomuch as their admirable learning may suffi-

ciently cross out all suspicion of ignorant error ; and their


innocent sanctity freeth us from all mistrust of malicious
corruption.
Now would I willingly see what reasonable answer may
be made to this. For the Protestants grant, that the Church
of Rome for 400 or 500 years held the true religion of
Christ yet do they exclaim against the above-said Articles,
:

which the same Church did maintain and uphold ; as may


be shewn by the express testimonies of the Fathers of the
same Church, and shall be largely laid down, if any learned
Protestant will deny it.

Yea, which is more, for the confirmation of all the


above-mentioned points of our religion, we will produce
good and certain grounds out of the sacred Scriptures, if
the Fathers' authority will not suffice. And we do desire
any Protestant to allege any one text out of the said Scrip-
ture, which condemneth any of the above- written points:
which we hold for certain they shall never be able to do.
For indeed they are neither more learned, more pious, nor
more holy than the blessed Doctors and Martyrs of that
first Church of Rome, which
they allow and esteem of so
much, and by which we most willingly will be tried, in
any point which is in controversy betwixt the Protestants
and the Catholics. Which we desire may be done with
sincerity, to the glory of God and
Christian charity and
instruction of them that are astray.
W. B.
AN

ANSWER
TO

THE FORMER CHALLENGE.

To uphold the religion which at this day is maintained


in the Church of Rome, and to discredit the truth which
we profess, three things are here urged, by one who hath
1
undertaken to make good the Papists cause against all

gainsayers. The first concerneth the original of the errors


wherewith that part standeth charged ; the author and time
whereof he requireth us to shew. The other two respect
the testimony, both of the primitive Church, and of the
sacred Scriptures; which, in the points wherein we vary,
if this man may be believed, maketh wholly for them and
against us.
First then would he fain know, what Bishop of Rome
did first alter that religion, which we commend in them of
the first 400 years? In what Pope^s days was the true
religion overthrown in Rome ? To which I answer First, :

that we do not hold that Rome was built in a day ; or


that the great dunghill of errors, which now we see in it,

was raised in an age and therefore it


: demand
is a vain
to require from us the name of any one Bishop of Rome,
by whom or under whom this Babylonish confusion was
brought in.
Secondly, that a great difference is to be put
betwixt heresies which openly oppose the foundations of our
faith, and that apostasy which the Spirit hath evidently
foretold should be brought in by such as speak lies in
hypocrisy, (l Tim. iv. 1, 2.) The impiety of the one is so
notorious, that at the very appearance it is manifestly
first

discerned the other is a


:
mystery of iniquity, (as the
Apostle termeth it, 2 Thes. ii. 7), iniquitas, sed mystica,
A2
4 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

id est, pietatis nomine palliata, (so the ordinary gloss ex-

poundeth the place;) "an iniquity indeed, but mystical, that


is, name of piety." And therefore they who
cloked with the
kept continual watch and ward against the one, might sleep
while the seeds of the other were a sowing; yea, peradven-
ture might at unawares themselves have some hand in bringing
in of this Trojan horse, commended thus unto them under
the name ofreligion and semblance of devotion. Thirdly,
that the original of errors is oftentimes so obscure, and their
breed so base, that howsoever it might be easily observed
by such as lived in the same age, yet no wise man will
marvel, if in tract of time the beginnings of many of them
should be forgotten, and no register of the time of their
birth found extant. We *read that the Sadducees taught,
there were no angels is
any man able to declare unto us,
:

under what High Priest they first broached this error?


The Grecians, Circassians, Georgians, Syrians, Egyptians,
Habassines, Muscovites, and Russians, dissent at this day
from the Church of Rome in many particulars will you :

take upon you to shew in what Bishop's days these several


differences did first arise? When the point hath been well
scanned, it will be found, that
many errors have crept into
their profession, the time of the entrance whereof you are
not able to design and some things also are maintained
:

by you against them, which have not been delivered for


catholic doctrine in the primitive times, but brought in
afterwards, yourselves know not when.
Such, for example, is that sacrilege of yours, whereby
you withhold from the people the use of the cup in the
Lord's Supper; as also your doctrine of Indulgences and
Purgatory which they reject, and you defend.
: For touch-
2
ing the first, Gregorius de Valentia, one of your principal
champions, confesseth, that the use of receiving the Sacrament
in one kind began first in some Churches, and grew to be
a general custom in the Latin Church not much before the
Council of Constance, in which at last (to wit, 200 years
ago) this custom was made a law. But if you put the
question to him, as you do to us. What Bishop of Rome
did first bring in this custom ? he giveth you this answer,

1
Acts 2
xxiii. 8. Valent. de legit, usu Euchar. cap. 10.
I.J
GENERAL ANSWER. 5

that it began to be used, not by the decree of any Bishop,


but by the very use of the Churches, and the consent of
the faithful. If you further question with him, Quando

primum vigere ccepit ea consuetudo in aliquibus Ecclesiis?


When first did that custom get footing in some Churches?
he returneth you for answer, Minime constat : it is more
than he can tell.
3 4
The Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and Cardinal
like doth
Cajetan give us to understand of Indulgences ; that no cer-
tainty can be had,
what their original was, or by whom
they were brought in.
first Fisher also further addeth
that in the ancient Fathers there is
concerning Purgatory,
either none at all, or very rare mention of it that by the ;

Grecians it is not believed, even to this day ; that the Latins


also, not all at once, but by little and little, received it ;
and that, Purgatory being so lately known, it is not to be
marvelled, that in the first times of the Church there was
no use .of Indulgences; seeing these had their beginning,
after that men for a wRile had been affrighted with the
torments of Purgatory. Out of which confession of the
adverse part you may observe: 1. What little reason these
men have to require us to set down the precise time wherein
all their profane novelties were first
brought in ;
seeing that
more than they themselves are able to do. 2. That
this is
some of them may come in pedetentim (as Fisher acknow-
ledgeth Purgatory did) by little and little, and by very
slow steps, which are not so easy to be discerned, as fools
5
be borne in hand they are. 3. That it is a fond imagina-
tion to suppose that all such changes must be made by
some Bishop, or any one certain author: whereas it is con-
fessed, that some may come in by the tacit consent of many,
and grow after into a general custom, the beginning whereof
is
past man's memory.
And as some superstitious usages may draw their original
from the undiscreet devotion of the multitude ; so some also
may be derived from want of devotion in the people : and

3
Roffen. Assert. Lutheran. Confutat. vulgar Latin edition of the Bible. Pede-
Art. 18. tentim usu ipso et tacitfl Doctorum appro-
Opusc. Tom. Tract. 15. de
4 i.
Cajet. bationeco?pitesseinpretio,hacaestimatione
Indulgent, cap. 1. sensim sine scnsu crescente. Pra-loqn. in
5
So saith Bonfrerius the Jesuit of the Scriptur. cap. 15. sect. 2.
ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

some alterations likewise must be attributed to the very

change of time itself. Of the one we cannot give a fitter


instance, than in your private Mass, wherein the Priest
6
receiveth the Sacrament alone; which Harding fetcheth
from no other ground, than lack of devotion of the peopled
part. When you therefore can tell us, in what Pope's days
the people fell from their devotion; we may chance tell

you, in what Pope's days your private Mass began. An


experiment of the other we may see in the use of the Latin
service in the Churches of Italy, France, and Spain. For
if we be questioned, When that use first began there? and
7
further demanded, Whether the language formerly used in
their Liturgy was changed upon a sudden ? our answer
must be, That Latin service was used in those countries
from the beginning; but that the Latin tongue at that time
was commonly understood of all, which afterward by little
and little degenerated into those vulgar languages which now
are used. When you therefore shall be pleased to certify
us, in what Pope's days the Latiil tongue was changed into
the Italian, French, and Spanish, (which we pray you do for
our learning;) we will then give you to understand, that
from that time forward the language, not of the service,
but of the people, was altered. Nee enim lingua vulgaris
populo subtracta est, sed populus ab ea recessit, saith
8
Erasmus: "the vulgar tongue was not taken away from
the people, but the people departed from it."
If this which I have said will not satisfy you, I would
wish you call unto your remembrance the answer which
Arnobius sometimes gave to a foolish question, propounded
by the enemies of the Christian faith: g Nec si nequivero
causas vobis exponere, cur aliquid Jiat illo vel hoc modo,
continuo sequitur, ut infecta jiant quce facta sunt. And
consider whether I may not return the like answer unto

you. If I be not able to declare unto you, by what

Bishop of Rome, and in what Pope's days, the simplicity


of the ancient faith was first it will not pre-
corrupted;
sently follow, that what was done must needs be undone.

6 Hard. Answer 8
to the first Article of Erasrn. in declarationib. ad censuras
Jewel's Challenge, fol. 26. b. edit. Antuerp. Parisiens. tit. 12, sect. 41.
Ann. 15B5. 9
Arnob. lib. ii. contra Gentes.
7 Allen. Art. 11, demand. 9.
GENERAL ANSWER.

Or rather, if
you please, call to mind the parable in the
w the
Gospel, where kingdom of heaven is likened unto a
man, which sowed good seed in his Jield ; but while men
slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat,
and went his way. These that slept, took no notice, when
or by whom the tares were scattered among the wheat;
neither at the first rising did they discern betwixt the one
and the other, though they were awake. But ll when the
blade was sprung up, and brought forth
fruit, then appeared
the tares and then they put the question unto their master,
:

Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy Jield? from
whence then hath it tares? Their master indeed telleth
them, it was the enemy's doing; but you could tell them
" You
otherwise, and come upon them thus yourselves :

grant, that the seed which was first sown in this field, was
good seed, and such as was put there by your master him-
self. If this which you call tares, be no good grain, and
hath sprung from some other seed than that which was
sown here at first I would fain know that man's name,
;

who was the sower of it and likewise the time in which ;

it was sown. Now, you being not able to shew either the
one or the other, it must needs be, that your eyes here
deceive you: or if these be tares, they are of no enemy's,
but of your master's own sowing."
To
pass the slumberings of former times, we could
let

tell
you of an age, wherein men not only slept, but also
snorted: it was (if you know it not) the tenth from Christ,
12
the next neighbour to that wherein hell broke loose that :

" 13
Genebrard and other of your own
unhappy age," (as
writers term " exhausted both of men of account for wit
it,)
and learning, and of worthy princes and bishops ;" in which
there were " 14 no famous writers, nor councils;" than which
we will credit there was never " 15 more
(if Bellarmine) age
unlearned and unhappy." If I be not able to discover what
feats the devil wrought in that time of darkness, wherein
men were not so vigilant in marking his conveyances; and

10
Matth. xiii. 24, 25. siveetiam claris principibusetpontificibus.
11
Ib. 26, 27. Genebrard. Chronic, lib. iv.
12
Apoc. xx. 7- 14
Bcllarmin. in Chronol. Ann. 970.
13
Infelix dicitur hoc scculum, cxhau- 15
Id. dc Rom. Pontif. lib. iv. cap. 12.
-tum hominibus ingenio ct doctrina Claris,
8 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

such as might see somewhat, were not so forward in writing


books of their observations; must the infelicity of that age,
wherein there was little learning and less writing, yea,
which " for want of writers," as Cardinal 1G Baronius acknow-
ledgeth, "hath been usually named the obscure age;" must
this, I say, enforce me to yield, that the devil brought in no
tares all that while, but let slip the opportunity of so dark
a night, and slept himself for company? There are other
means left unto us, whereby we may discern the tares
brought in by the instruments of Satan from the good seed
which was sown by the Apostles of Christ, besides this
observation of times and seasons, which will often fail us.
Tertullian, cum Apostolicd
17
Ipsa doctrina eorum, saith
comparata, ex diversitate et contrarietate sud pronuntiabit,
neque Apostoli alicujus auctoris esse, neque Apostolici.
" Their
very doctrine itself, being compared with the Apostolic,
by the diversity and contrariety thereof will pronounce, that
it had for author neither
any Apostle nor any man Apostolical."
For there cannot be a better prescription against heretical
novelties, than that which our Saviour Christ useth against
the Pharisees,
l8
From the beginning it was not so; nor
a better preservative against the infection of seducers that
are crept in unawares, than that which is
prescribed by the
19
Apostle Jude, earnestly to contend for the faith which
was once delivered unto the saints.
Now to the 20
might know the certainty of those
end we
things, wherein the saints were at the first instructed; God
hath provided, that the memorial thereof should be recorded
in own book, that it might remain 2lfor the time to
his

come, for ever and ever. He then, who out of that book
is able to demonstrate, that the doctrine and
practice now
prevailing swerveth from that which was at first established
in the Church by the Apostles of Christ, doth as strongly

prove, that a change hath been made in the middle times,


as if he were able to nominate the place where, the time
when, and the person by whom any such corruption was
first
brought in. In the Apostles' days, when a man had

16
Baron. Annal. Tom. x. Ann. 900. 18
Matth. xix. 8. 19
Jude 3, 4.
sect. 1. 21
20 Luke i. 4. Esai. xxx. 8.
17
Tertul. Prescript, advers. Hjeret.
cap. 32.
GENERAL ANSWER.

examined himself, he was admitted unto the Lord's Table,


there to eat of that bread,, and drink of that cup; as

appeareth plainly, 1 Cor. xi. 28. In the Church of Rome


at day the people are indeed permitted to eat of the
this

bread, bread they may call it, but not allowed to drink
if

of the cup. Must all of us now shut our eyes, and sing,
22
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc ; unless we be able to
tell
by whom, and when this first institution was altered?
By St Paul's order, who would have all things done to
edification, Christians should pray with understanding, and
not in an unknown language: as may be seen in the four-
teenth chapter of the same Epistle to the Corinthians. The
case is now so altered, that the bringing in of a tongue not
understood (which hindered the edifying of Babel itself, and
scattered the builders thereof) is accounted a good means
23
to further edifying of your Babel, and to
the hold her
followers together. Is not this, then, a good ground to
resolve a man's judgment, that things are not now kept
in that order,wherein they were set at first by the Apostles ;
although he be not able to point unto the first author of the
disorder ?

And as we may thus discover innovations, by having


recourse unto the first and best times; so may we do the
like by comparing the state of things present with the middle
times of the Church. Thus I find by the constant and
approved practice of the ancient Church, that all sorts of
people, men, women, and children, had free liberty to read
the holy Scriptures. I find now the contrary among the
Papists and shall I say for all this, that they have not
:

removed the bounds which were set by the Fathers, because


perhaps I cannot name the Pope, that ventured to make
the first inclosure of these commons of God's people ? I hear
St ^Jerome say :
Judith, et Tobice, et Macchabceorum libros
legitquidem Ecclesia, sed eos inter Canonicas Scripturas
non recipit. " The Church doth read indeed the books of
Judith, and Tobit, and the Maccabees ; but doth not receive
them for Canonical Scripture." I see that at this day the

28
As it was in the beginning, so non legendis, cap. 1J. Bellar. lib. ii. de
now. Verbo Dei, cap. 15.
23 24
Ledesim. de Scripturis quavis lingua Hieronym. Prefat. in Libros Salo-
mon. Epist. 115.
10 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

Church of Rome receiveth them for such. May not I then


conclude, that betwixt St Jerome's time and ours there hath
been a change ; and that the Church of Rome now is not
of the same judgment with the Church of God then ; how-
soever I cannot precisely lay down the time, wherein she first

thought herself to be wiser herein than her forefathers ?


But here our adversary closeth with us, and layeth down
a number of points, held by them, and denied by us ; which
he undertaketh to make good, as well by the express testi-
monies of the Fathers of the primitive Church of Rome, as
also by good and certain grounds out of the sacred Scriptures,
if the Fathers'
authority will not suffice. Where if he would
change his order, and give the sacred Scriptures the pre-
cedency ; he should therein do more right to God the author
of them, who well deserveth to have audience in the first
place; and withal ease both himself and us of a needless
labour, in seeking any further authority to compose our
differences. For if he can produce, as he beareth us in
hand he can, good and certain grounds out of the sacred
Scriptures for the points in controversy, the matter is at an
end he that will not rest satisfied with such evidences as
:

these, may (if he please) travel further, and speed worse.


25
Therefore, as St Augustine heretofore provoked the Donatists,
so provoke Auferantur chartce humance : sonent
I him :

voces divince: ede mihi unam Scriptures vocem pro parte


" Let human
Donati. writings be removed let God's voice :

sound bring me one voice of the Scripture for the part of


:

Donatus." Produce but one clear testimony of the sacred


Scripture for the Pope's part, and it shall suffice: allege
what authority you list without Scripture, and it cannot
suffice. We reverence indeed the ancient Fathers, as it is

fit we our duty to 26 rise up before the


should, and hold it

hoary head, and to honour the person of the aged ; but still
with reservation of the respect we owe to their Father and
27
ours, Ancient of days, the hair of whose head is
that
like pure wool. We may not forget the lesson, which
the
our great Master hath taught us: 28 Call no man your
father upon the earth; for one is your Father which is in
heaven. Him therefore alone do we acknowledge for the
35 27 Dan.
Aug. de Pastorib. cap. 14. vii. 6.
- ri 28
Lcvit. xix. 32. Matth. xxiii. 0.
GENERAL ANSWER. 11

Father of our faith : no other father do we know, upon whose


bare credit we may ground our consciences in things that are
to be believed.
And this we say, not as if
we feared that these men
were able to produce better proofs out of the writings of
the Fathers for the part of the Pope, than we can do for
the Catholic cause (when we come to join in the particulars,
;

they shall find :)


but partly to bring the matter
it otherwise
unto a shorter trial, partly to give the word of God his due,
and to declare what that rock is, upon which alone we build
our faith, even ^the foundation of the Apostles and Pro-
phets ; from which no sleight that they can devise, shall
ever draw us.
The same course did St Augustine take with the Pela-
against whom he wanted not the authority
gians ;
of the
Fathers of the Church: " 30 Which if I would collect,"
saith he, u and use their testimonies, it would be too long a

work, and I might peradventure seem to have less confidence


than I ought in the Canonical authorities, from which we
ought not to be withdrawn." Yet was the Pelagian heresy
then but newly budded which is the time wherein the:

pressing of the Fathers testimonies is


thought to be best
in season. With how much better warrant may we follow
this precedent, having had time
to deal with such as have
1
and leisure enough to falsify the Fathers writings, and to
teach them the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans?
The method of confuting heresies by the consent of holy
Fathers is by none commended more than by Vincentius
Lirinensis; who is careful notwithstanding, herein to give
us this caveat: " 31
But neither always nor all kinds of
heresies are to be impugned manner, but such only
after this
as are new and lately sprung; namely, when they
do first

29
Ephes. ii. 20. primum scilicet exoriuntur; antequam
30
Quos si colligere et eorum testimo- infalsare vetustae fidei regulas ipsius tem-
niis uti velim, et nimis longum erit, et de poris vetantur angustiis, ac priusquam
Canonicis auctoritatibus, a quibus non manante latius veneno majorum volumina
debemus averti, minus fortasse videbor vitiare conentur. Ceterum dilatatae et
praesumpsisse quam debui. Aug. de Nupt. inveteratae haereses nequaquam hac via
et Concupiscent, lib. ii.
cap. 29. aggrediendac sunt, eo quod prolixo tem-
31
Sed neque semper neque omnes porum tractu longa his furandae veritatis
haereses hoc modo impugnandac sunt, sed patuerit occasio. Vincent, de Hares.
novitiae recentesque tanlummodo, cum cap. 39.
12 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

arise, while by the straitness of the time itself they be


hindered from falsifying the rules of the ancient faith; and
before the time that, their poison spreading farther, they

attempt to corrupt the writings of the ancients. But far-


spread and inveterate heresies are not to be dealt withal
this way, forasmuch as by long continuance of time a long
occasion hath lain open unto them to steal away the truth."
The heresies with which we have to deal, have spread so
far and continued so long, that the defenders of them are
bold to make Universality and Duration the special marks
of the Church: they had opportunity enough of time and
place, to put in ure all deceivableness of unrighteousness;
neither will they have it to say, that in coining and clipping
and washing the monuments of antiquity, they have been
wanting to themselves.
Before the Council of Nice, (as hath been observed by
32
one, who sometime was Pope himself,) little respect, to
speak of, was had to the Church of Rome. If this may be

thought to prejudice the dignity of that Church, which would


be held to have sat as queen among the nations from the
very beginning of Christianity ; you shall have a crafty mer-
chant, (Isidorus Mercator, I trow, they call him,) that will
help the matter, by counterfeiting Decretal Epistles in the
name of the primitive Bishops of Rome, and bringing in
thirty of them in a row, as so many knights of the post, to
bear witness of that great authority, which the Church of
Rome enjoyed before the Nicene Fathers were assembled.
If the Nicene Fathers have not amplified the bounds of her

jurisdiction in so large a manner as she desired ; she hath


had her have supplied the Council's negli-
well-willers, that

gence in that behalf, and made Canons for the purpose in


the name of the good Fathers, that never dreamed of such
a business. If the power of judging all others will not
content the Pope, unless he himself may be exempted from
being judged by any other; another ^Council, as ancient
at least as that of Nice, shall be suborned wherein it shall
;

be concluded, by the consent of 284 imaginary Bishops, that


" No man
may judge the first seat :" and for failing, in an

33 33
yEneas Sylvius, Epist. 288. Concil.Rom. sub Sylvest. cap. 20.
Nemo enim judicabit primam sedem.
I.]
GENERAL ANSWER. 13

^ Council than
elder that, consisting of 300 buckram Bishops
of the very selfsame making, the like note shall be sung:
" The
Quoniam prima sedes non judicabitur a quoquam :
first seat must not be judged by any man." Lastly, if the
Pope do not think that the fulness of spiritual power is
sufficient for his greatness, unless he may be also lord para-
mount in temporalibus ;he hath his followers ready at hand,
to frame a fair donation, in the name of Constantine the
Emperor, whereby be estated, not only in
his Holiness shall
the city of
Rome, but also in the seigniory of the whole
West. It would require a volume to rehearse the names of
those several tractates, which have been basely bred in the
former days of darkness, and fathered upon the ancient
Doctors of the Church, who, if they were now alive, would
be deposed that they were never privy to their begetting.
Neither hath this corrupting humour stayed itself in forging
of whole Councils, and entire treatises of the ancient writers ;
but hath, like a canker, fretted away divers of their sound
parts, and so altered their complexions, that they appear not
to be the same men they were. To instance in the great
question of Transubstantiation we were wont to read in the
:

books attributed unto St Ambrose, De Sacramentis, lib. iv.


cap. 4. Si ergo tanta vis est in sermone Domini Jesu, ut
inciperent esse quce non erant ; quanto magis operatorius
est, ut sint quce erant, et in aliud commutentur ? "If there-
fore there be so great force in the speech of our Lord Jesus,
that the things which were not, began to be (namely, at the
firstcreation,) how much more the same powerful to make,
is

that things may still be that which they were, and yet be
changed into another thing ?" It is not unknown, how much
those words, ut sint quce erant, have troubled their brains,
who maintain, that after the words of consecration the
elements of bread and wine be not that thing which they
were ; and what devices they have found, to make the bread
and wine in the Sacrament to be like unto the Beast in the
Revelation, ^that was, and is not, and yet is. But that
Gordian knot, which they with their skill could not so readily

untie, their masters at Rome (Alexander-like) have now cut


asunder; paring clean away in their Roman edition, (which

34 35
Concil. Sinuessan. circa fin. Apoc. xvii. 8.
14 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

is also followed in that set out at Paris, anno


1603,) those
words that so much troubled them, and letting the rest run
smoothly after this manner Quanta magis operatorius est,
:

ut quce erant, in aliud commutentur? "How much more


is the
speech of our Lord powerful to make, that those things
which were, should be changed into another thing ?"
The author of the imperfect work upon Matthew,
Homil. xi. writeth thus Si ergo hcec vasa sanctificata ad
:

privates usus transferre sic periculosum est, in quibus non


est verum corpusChristi, sed mysterium corporis ejus con-
tinetur quanto magis vasa corporis nostri, quce sibi Deus
;

ad habitaculum prceparavit, non debemus locum dare Diabolo


agendi in eis quod vult ? "If therefore it be so dangerous
a matter to transfer unto private uses those holy vessels,
in which the true body of Christ is not, but the mystery of
his body is contained; how much more for the vessels of
our body which God hath prepared for himself to dwell in,
ought not we to give way unto the Devil, to do in them
what he pleaseth ?" Those words (in quibus non est verum
corpus Christi, sed mysterium corporis ejus continetur ; "in
which the true body of Christ is not, but the mystery of his
'body is contained") did threaten to cut the very throat of
1
the Papists real presence ; and therefore in good policy they

thought it fit to cut their throat first, for doing any further
hurt. Whereupon, in the editions of this work printed at
Antwerp, apud Joannem Steelsium, anno 1537 ; at Paris,
apud Joannem Roigny, anno 1543; and at Paris again,
apud Audoenum Parvum, anno 1557; not one syllable of
them is to be seen though extant in the ancienter editions,
;

one whereof is as old as the year 1487- And to the same


purpose, in the 19th Homily, instead of Sacrificium panis
et vini, " the sacrifice of bread and wine," (which we find in
the old impressions,) these latter editions have chopped in
" the of the
Sacrificium corporis et sanguinis Christi, sacrifice

body and blood of Christ."


In the year 1608 there were published at Paris certain
works of Fulbertus, Bishop of Chartres, " M pertaining as
well to the refuting of the heresies of this time" (for so saith
the inscription) "as to the clearing of the History of the

36
Qua tarn ad refutandas haereses hujus temporis, quam ad Gallorum Hist, pertinent.
I.]
GENERAL ANSWER. 15

French." Among those things that appertain to the confuta-


tion of the heresies of this time, there is one especially
(fol. 168) laid down in these words: Nisi manducaveritis,
inquit, carnem Jilii hominis, et sanguinem biberitis, non
habebitis vitam in vobis. Facinus vel flagitium videtur
jubere. Figura ergo est, dicet hcereticus, prcecipiens Pas-
sioni Domini esse communicandum tantum, et suaviter atque
ufiliter recondendum in memorid, quod pro nobis caro ejus
et vulnerata sit.
" saith Christ, eat the
crucifixa Unless, ye
flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye shall not
have life in you. He seemeth to command an outrage or
wickedness. It a figure, will the heretic say,
is therefore

requiring us only to communicate with the Lord's Passion,


and sweetly and profitably to lay up in our memory, that
his flesh was crucified and wounded for us." He that put
in those words (dicet hcereticus) thought he had notably met
with heretics of this time; but was not aware, that
the

thereby he made St Augustine an heretic for company. For


the heretic that speaketh thus, is even St Augustine himself:
whose very words these are, in his third book De Doctrind
Christiana, the 16th chapter. Which some belike having put
the publisher in mind of, he was glad to put this among
his errata, and to confess that these two words were not to
be found in the MS. copy which he had from 37 Petavius;
but telleth us not what we are to think of him, that for the

countenancing of the Popish cause ventured so shamefully


to abuse St Augustine.
In the year 1616 a tome of ancient writers, that never
saw the light before, was set forth at Ingolstad, by Petrus
Steuartius; where, among other tractates, a certain Peni-
tential, by Rabanus, that famous Archbishop of
written
Mentz, is to be seen. In the 33d chapter of that book,
Rabanus making answer unto an idle question moved by
Bishop Heribaldus concerning the Eucharist, (what should
become of it, after it was consumed, and sent into the
draught, after the manner of other meats,) hath these words
(initio pag. 669) Nam quidam nuper de ipso sacramento
:

corporis et sanguinis Domini non rite sentientes dixerunt,


hoc ipsum corpus et sanguinem Domini, quod de Maria

J7 Vide Tom. xi. Bibliotheca Patrum, edit. Col. p. 44. b.


16 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

Virgine natum est, et in quo ipse Dominus passus est in


cruce, et resurrexit de sepulcro* ^cui errori quantum
potuimus, ad Egilum Abbatem scribentes, de corpore ipso
" For some of
quid vere credendum sit aperuimus. late, not

holding rightly of the Sacrament of the body and blood of


our Lord, have said, that the very body and blood of our
Lord, which was born of the Virgin Mary, and in which
our Lord himself suffered on the cross, and rose again from
the grave* Against which error, writing unto Abbot
Egilus, according to our ability, we have declared, what is
truly to be believed concerning Christ's body." You see
Rabanus's tongue is
clipt here for telling tales: but how
this came to pass, were worth the learning. Steuartius freeth
that " here
39
himself from the fact, telling us in his margin,
there was a blank in the manuscript copy ;" and we do easily
believe him : for Possevine the Jesuit hath given us to under-
" 40
stand, that manuscript books also are to be purged, as
well as printed." But whence was this manuscript fetched,
Out " 41 the famous
think you? of monastery of Weingart,"
saith Steuartius. The monks
of Weingart then belike must
answer the matter: and they, I dare say, upon examination
will take their oaths, that it was no part of their intention
to give any furtherance unto the cause of the Protestants
hereby. If hereunto we add, that Heribaldus and Rabanus
both are 42 ranked among heretics by Thomas Walden 43 for
holding the Eucharist to be subject to digestion and voidance,
like other meats ; the suspicion will be more vehement :

whereunto yet I will adjoin one evidence more, that shall


leave the matter past suspicion.
In the libraries of my worthy friends, Sir Robert Cotton
(that noble baronet, so renowned for his great care in col-
lecting and preserving all antiquities) and Dr Ward, the
learned Master of Sidney College in Cambridge, I met
with an ancient Treatise of the Sacrament, beginning thus:
Sicut ante nos quidam sapiens diocit, cujus sententiam pro-
bamus, licet nomen ignoremus ; which is the same with that
38
Vide Mabil. Acta Bened. sect. 4. 41
Ex MS. Cod. celeberrimi Monasterii
p. ii. p. 596. Weingartensis.
39 42
Lacuna hie est in MS. exemplari. Wald. Tom. i. Doctrinal, in Prolog,
40 Ad istos enim quoque purgatio per- ad Martinura v.
43
tinet. Possevin. lib. i. Bibliothec. select, Id. Tom. ii. cap. 19et61.
cap. 12.
I.]
GENERAL A NSW El!. 17

43
in the Jesuit's College at Louvaine, blindly fathered upon

Berengarius. The author of this Treatise, having first

twitted Heribaldus for propounding, and Rabanus for re-

solving, this question of the voidance of the Eucharist, layeth


down afterward the opinion of Paschasius Radbertus (whose

writing is
yet extant) Quod non alia plane sit caro quce
:

sumitur de quce nata est de Maria Virgine,


altari, quam
et passa in cruce, et quce resurrexit de sepulchro, quceque
et pro mundi vita adhuc hodie offer tur.
" That the flesh
which is received at the altar, is no other than that which
was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered on the cross, rose
again from the grave, and as yet is daily offered for the
life of the world." Contra quern, saith he, satis argumen-
tatur et Rabanus in Epistola ad ^Egilonem Abbatem, et
Ratrannus quidam libro composito ad Carolum Regem,
dicentes aliam esse. "Against whom both Rabanus in his
Epistle to Abbot Egilo, and one Ratrannus in a book
which he made to King Charles, argue largely saying that ;

it is another kind of flesh." Whereby, what Rabanus's


opinion was of this point in his Epistle to Abbot Egilo or
Egilus, and consequently what that was which the monks
of Weingart could not endure in his Penitential, I trust
is
plain enough.
I omit other corruptions of antiquity in this same ques-
45
tion, which I have touched elsewhere: only that of Bertram
I may not pass over; wherein the dishonesty of these men,
in handling the writings of the ancients, is laid open, even
by the confession of their own mouths. Thus the case
standeth that Ratrannus, who joined with Rabanus in re-
:

futing the error of the carnal presence at the first bringing


in thereof by Paschasius Radbertus, is he who
commonly
is known by the name of Bertramus. The book which he
wrote of this argument to Carolus Calvus the Emperor, was
forbidden to be read, by order from the Roman Inquisition,
confirmed afterwards by the Council of Trent. The divines
of Douay, perceiving that the forbidding of the book did
not keep men from reading it, but gave them rather occasion

43
Ant. Possevin. Apparat. sac. JEgilo ille, cui in Fuldensis abbatiae regi-

Berengario Turon. mine proxime successit ipse Rabanus.


4 '*
Al. Elgionem et Helgimonem, male. 45 De Christian. Eccl. Success, et Statu,

Neque enim alius hie intelligendus, quam edit. ann. 1613, p. 45 et 198.
B
18 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

to seekmore earnestly after it, thought it better policy, that


Bertram should be permitted to go abroad, but handled in
such sort, as other ancient writers, that made against them,
"
were wont to be. they) we bear
4(i

Seeing therefore (say


with very many errors in other of the old Catholic writers, and
extenuate them, excuse them, by inventing some device often-
times deny them, and feign some commodious sense for them
when they are objected in disputations or conflicts with our
adversaries; we do not see, why Bertram may not deserve
the same equity and diligent ;
cry revisal lest the heretics
out, that we burn and forbid such antiquity as maketh for
them." Mark this dealing well. The world must be borne
in hand, that all the Fathers make for the Church of Rome
against us in our controversies.
all bring forth When we
express testimonies of the Fathers to the contrary, what
must then be done? A good face must be put upon the
matter, one device or other must be invented to elude the
testimonies objected, and still it must be denied that the
Fathers make against the doctrine of the Papists. Bertram,
for example, writeth thus: "
47
The things which one
differ

from another, are not the same. The body of Christ which
was dead, and rose again, and being made immortal now
dieth not, (death no more having dominion over it,) is ever-

lasting, and now not subject to suffering. But this which


is celebrated in the Church, is temporal, not everlasting; it
is corruptible, not free from corruption." What device must
they find out here ?
They must say this is meant of the
accidents or " 48
forms of the which are cor-
Sacrament,
ruptible; or of the use of the Sacrament, which continueth
only in this present world." But how will this shift serve
the turn, when as the whole drift of the discourse tendetb

46
Quum Quae a se differunt, idem non sunt.
47
igitur in Catholicis veteribus
plurimos feramus errores, et extenu-
aliis
Corpus Christi quod mortuum est, et re-
emus, excusemus, excogitate commento surrexit, et immortale factum jam
non
persaepe negemus, et commodum iis sen- moritur,etmorsilli ultra non dominabitur,
sum affingamus, dum opponuntur in dis- aeternumest,necjampassibile. Hocautem
putationibus aut in conflictionibus cum quod in Ecclesia celebratur, temporale est,
adversariis ; non videmus, cur non eandem non aeternum ; corruptibile est, non incor-
sequitatem et diligentem recognitionem ruptum Bertram, de Corp et Sang. Dom.
. .

mereatur Bertramus, ne haeretici oggan- 48


Secundum species Sacramenti cor-
niant, nos antiquitatem pro ipsis facientem ruptibiles aut de re ipsa et usu sacra-
:

exurere et prohibere. Index Expurg. menti, qui non contingit, nisi prsesenti in
Belgic. p. .% edit. Antuerp. ann. 1571. seculo. Index Expurg. p. 7.
T.]
GENERAL ANSWER. 19

to prove, that that which is received by the mouth of the


faithful in the Sacrament, is not that very body of Christ
which died upon the cross, and rose again from death ?
Non male aut inconsulte omittantur igitur omnia hcec:
66
were not amiss therefore," say our Popish censurers, " nor
It

unadvisedly done, that all these things should be


left out.""

If this be your manner of dealing with antiquity, let


all men judge whether it be not high time for us to listen

unto the advice of Vincentius Lirinensis, and not be so


forward to commit the trial of our controversies to the

writings of the Fathers, who have had the hap to


ill fall

into such huckster's handling. Yet that you may see how
confident we are in the goodness of our cause ; we will not
now stand upon our right, nor refuse to enter with you
into this field; but give you leave for this time both to be
the challenger, and the appointer of your own weapons. Let
us then hear your challenge, wherein you would so fain be
answered. " I would fain " how can
know," say you, your
religion be true, which disalloweth of many chief articles,
which the Saints and Fathers of that primitive Church of
Rome did generally hold to be true? For they of your
side, that have read the Fathers of that unspotted Church,
can well testify (and if any deny it, it shall be presently
shewn) that the Doctors, Pastors, and Fathers of that
Church do allow of &c. And " Now
Traditions," again :

would I fain know, whether of both have the true religion ;

they that hold all these above-said points with the primitive
Church, or they that do most vehemently contradict and
gainsay them ? do not disagree with that holy
they that
Church in
any point of religion ; or they that agree with
it but in
very few, and disagree in almost all ?" And the
" Now would I
third time too, for failing :
willingly see what
reasonable answer may be made to this. For the Protestants
grant, that the Church of Rome for 400 or 500 years held
the true religion of Christ: yet do they exclaim against the
above-said articles which the same Church did maintain and

uphold ; as may be shewn by the express testimonies of the


Fathers of the same Church, and shall be largely laid down,
if
any learned Protestant will deny it."
If Albertus Pighius had now been alive, as great a
scholar as he was, he might have learned that he never
20 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

knew before. " Who


did ever yet (saith 49 he) by the Church
of Rome understand the universal Church?" That doth
this man, say I, who styleth all the ancient Doctors and
Martyrs of the Church universal with the name of the Saints
and Fathers of the primitive Church of Rome. But it
seemeth a small matter unto him, for the magnifying of that
Church, to confound urbem and orbem ; unless he mingle
also heaven and earth together, by giving the title of that

unspotted Church, which is the special privilege of the Church


triumphant in heaven, unto the Church of Rome here militant
upon earth. St Augustine surely would not have himself
otherwise understood, whensoever he speaketh of the un-
spotted Church and therefore, to prevent all mistaking, he
;

thus expoundeth himself in his Retractations: " 50 Where-


soever in these books I have made mention of the Church
not having spot or wrinkle ; it is not so to be taken, as if
she were so now, but that she is prepared to be so, when
she shall appear glorious. For now, by reason of certain
ignorances and infirmities of her members, the whole Church
hath cause to say every day, Forgive us our trespasses."
Now, Church is subject to these ignorances
as long as the
and infirmities, cannot be otherwise, but there must be
it

differences betwixt the members thereof: one part may


understand that whereof another is ignorant ; and ignorance
being the mother of error, one particular Church may wrongly
conceive of some points, wherein others may be rightly in-
formed. Neither will it follow thereupon, that these Churches
must be of different religions, because they fully agree not
in all things; or that therefore the reformed Churches in

our days must disclaim all kindred with those in ancient


times, because they have washed away some spots from them-
selves, which they discerned to have been in them.
It is not
every spot that taketh away the beauty of a
Church, nor every sickness that taketh away the life thereof:
and therefore though we should admit that the ancient Church

49
Quis per Romanam Ecclesiam un- jam sit, sed quae prasparatur ut sit, quando
quam intellexit aut universalem Eccle- apparebit etiam gloriosa. Nunc enim
siam, aut generate Concilium? Pigh. propter quasdam ignorantias et infirmi-
Eccles. Hierar. lib. vi. cap. 3. tates membrorum suorum habet unde
60
Ubicunque in his libris commemo- quotidie tota dicat: Dimitte nobis de-
ravi Ecclesiam non habentem maculam bita nostra. August. Retract, lib. ii.
aut rugam ; non sic accipiendum est quasi cap. 18.
I.]
GENERAL ANSWEK. 21

of Rome was somewhat impaired both in beauty and in health


too, (wherein we have no reason to be sorry, that we are
unlike unto her,) there is no necessity, that hereupon pre-
St Cyprian and the
sently she must cease to be
our sister.
rest of the AfricanBishops that joined with him, held that
such as were baptized by heretics, should be rebaptized:
the African Bishops in the time of Aurelius were of another
mind. Doth the diversity of their judgments in this point
make them to have been of a diverse religion ? It was the

use of the ancient Church to minister the Communion unto


infants which is yet also practised by the Christians in
:

Egypt and Ethiopia. The Church of Rome, upon better


consideration, hath thought fit to do otherwise: and yet
for all that will not yield, that either she herself hath for-
saken the religion of her ancestors, because she followeth
them not in this; or that they were of the same religion
with the Cophtites and Habassines, because they agree to-
gether in this particular. So put case the Church of Rome
now did use prayer for the dead in manner that
the same
the ancient Church did ; (which we shew to be other-
will

wise;) the reformed Churches, that upon better advice have


altered that usage, need not therefore grant, that either
themselves hold a different religion from that of the Fathers,
because they do not precisely follow them in this; nor yet
that the Fathers were therefore Papists, because in this point

they thus concurred. For as two may be discerned to be


sisters by the likeness of their faces, although the one have
some spots or blemishes which the other hath not; so a
third may be brought in which may shew like spots and
blemishes, and yet have no such likeness of visage as may
bewray her to be the others' sister.
But our. Challenger having first conceited in his mind
an idea of an unspotted Church upon earth; then being
far in love with the painted face of the present Church of

Rome, and out of love with us, because we like not as he


liketh ; taketh a view of both our faces in the false glass
of affection, and findeth her on whom he doteth, to answer
his unspotted Church in all points, but us to agree with
it in almost
nothing. And thereupon he "would fain know
whether of both have the true religion ; they that do not
disagree with that holy Church in any point of religion,
'22 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

or they that agree with it but in very few, and disagree


in almost all ?" Indeed, if that which he assumeth for granted
could as easily be proved as it is boldly avouched, the ques-
tion would quickly be resolved, " Whether of us both have
the true religion ?" But he is to understand, that strong
conceits are but weak proofs and that the Jesuits have ;

not been the first, from whom such brags as these have
been heard. Dioscorus the heretic was as pert, when he
uttered these in the Council of Chalcedon " 51 1 am
speeches :

cast out with the Fathers: I defend the doctrines of the


Fathers : I transgress them not in any point ; and I have
their testimonies, barely, not very books.'" but in their
Neither need we wonder that he should bear us down, that
the Church of Rome at this day doth not disagree from
the primitive Church " in any point of religion," who sticketh
not so confidently to affirm, that we " agree with it but in
1'

very few, and disagree in almost all. For those few points
wherein he confesseth we do agree with the ancient Church,
must either be meant of such articles only wherein we dis-
agree from the now Church of Rome, or else of the whole
body of that religion which we profess. If in the former
he yield that we do agree with the primitive Church, what
credit doth he leave unto himself, who with the same
breath hath given out, that the present Church of Rome
" doth not
disagree with that holy Church in any point ?" If
he mean the latter, with what face can he say, that we
agree with that holy Church " but in very few points" of
" and
religion, disagree in almost all ?" Irenaeus, who was the
disciple of thosewhich heard St John the Apostle, 52 layeth
down the articles of that faith, in the unity whereof the
Churches that were founded in Germany, Spain, France,
the East, Egypt, Libya, and all the world, did sweetly
accord; as if they had all dwelt in one house, all had but
one soul, and one heart, and one mouth. Is he able to
shew one point, wherein we have broken that harmony which
Irenaeus commendeth in the Catholic Church of his time?
But that " rule of faith" so much commended by him and

yo) /A6TCC TCOV Trare e'xa). Concil. Chalced. Act. i. p. 97- edit.
tyto crvvi(TTafJLaL TOIS Rom.
ov -rrapaflaivco ev 52
ariv. TIV'I. nai TOUTOOV Irenae. lib. i. cap. 2, 3. Epiph.Haeres.
^f d\\' ei/
piftXiois I 31.
I.]
GENERAL ANSWER. 23

Tertulliau, and the rest of the Fathers, and all the articles
of the several creeds that were ever received in the ancient
Church badges of the Catholic profession, to which we
as
is with this man almost nothing: none
willingly subscribe,
must now be counted a Catholic, but he that can conform
his belief unto the
53
creed of the new fashion, compiled by
Pope Pius the Fourth some four and fifty years ago.
As for the particular differences, wherein he thinketh
he hath the advantage of us, when we come unto the sifting
of them, it shall appear how far he was deceived in his
imagination. In the meantime, having as yet not strucken
one stroke, but threatened only to do wonders, if any would
be so hardy to accept his challenge; he might have done
very well to have deferred his triumph until such time as
he had obtained the victory. For as if he had borne us
down with the weight of the authority of the Fathers, and
so astonished us therewith, that we could not tell what to

say for ourselves, he thus bestirreth himself in a most ridi-


culous manner, fighting with his own shadow " Will
you :

say that these Fathers," saith he, who hath not hitherto
laid down so much as the name of any one Father,
" main-
tained these opinions contrary to the word of God ? Why,
you know that they were the pillars of Christianity, the
champions of Christ's Church, and of the true Catholic
religion, which they most learnedly defended against divers
heresies, and therefore spent all their time in a most serious
study of the holy Scripture. Or will you say, that although
they knew the Scriptures to repugn, yet they brought in
the aforesaid opinions by malice and corrupt intentions?

Why, yourselves cannot deny but that they lived most holy
and virtuous lives, free from all malicious corrupting or

perverting of God's holy word, and by their holy lives are


now made worthy to reign with God in his glory. Insomuch
as admirable learning may sufficiently cross out all
their

suspicion of ignorant error ; and their innocent sanctity freeth


us from all mistrust of malicious corruption."
But by his leave, he is a little too hasty. He were
best to bethink himself more advisedly of that which he
hath undertaken to perform, and to remember the saying

>:i
Kornui Prot'osionis Fidei. in Hulla 1'ii iv. edit. {inn. I.~>i4.
ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

of the king of Israel unto Benhadad, 5i Let not him that


girdeth on his harness, boast himself, as he that putteth
it
off.
He hath taken upon him to prove, that our religion
cannot be true, because " disalloweth of
it
many chief articles
which the Saints and Fathers of that primitive Church of
Rome did generally hold to be true." For performance
hereof, it will not be sufficient for him to shew, that "some
of these Fathers maintained some of these opinions :" he must
prove (if he will be as good as his word, and deal any
thing to the purpose) that they held them generally, and
held them too, not as opinions, but tanquam de fide, as
appertaining to the substance of faith and religion. For,
as Vincentius Lirinensis well
" 55 the ancient con-
observeth,
sent of the holy Fathers is with great care to be sought
and followed by us, not in every petty question belonging
to the law of God, but only, or at least principally, in the
rule of faith." But all the points propounded by our Chal-
lenger be not chief articles; and therefore, if in some of
them the Fathers have held some opinions that will not bear

weight in the balance of the sanctuary, (as some conceits

they had herein, which the Papists themselves must confess


to be erroneous,) their defects in that kind do abate nothing
of that reverent estimation which we have them in, for
their great pains taken in the
" defence of the true Catholic
and " serious
religion," the study of the holy Scripture." Nei-
ther do I think that he who thus commendeth them for " the

pillars of Christianity," and " the champions of Christ's

Church," hold himself tied to stand unto every


will therefore

thing that they have said sure he will not, if he follow the
:

steps of the great ones of his own society.


For what doth he think of Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and
"
Epiphanius ? Doth he not account them among those pillars"
and " he
champions" of? saith Cardinal Bellar-
speaketh Yet,
" 56 I do not see how we may defend their opinion from
mine,
error." When
others object, that they have two or three
hundred testimonies of the Doctors to prove that the Virgin
54
1 Kings xx. 11. est et sequenda. Vincent, contra Haeres.
55 cap. 39.
Antiqua sanctorum patrum consensio
56
non in omnibus divinae legis quaestiun- Justini, Irenaei, Epiphanii, atque
GEcumenii sententiam non video quo pacto
culis, sed solum, certe praecipue, in fidei
ab errore possimus defendere. Bellarmin.
rcgula magno nobis studio et investiganda
lib. i. de Sanclor. Beatit. cap. <>.
GENERAL ANSWER.

57
Mary was conceived in Salmeron the Jesuit steps forth
sin,
and answereth them, first out of the doctrine of Augustine and
" the
Thomas, that argument drawn from authority is weak ;"
then out of the " word of God," Exod. xxiii Injudicio, pluri- :

morum non acquiesces sententice, ut a vero devies. " In


judgment thou shalt not be led with the sentence of the
most, to decline from the truth." And lastly telleth them,
" 58 that when the Donatists in the multitude of
authors,
gloried
St Augustine did answer them, that it was a sign their cause
was destitute of the strength of truth, which was only sup-
ported by the authority of many who were subject to error."
And when his adversaries press him, not only with the " mul-
also with the "
59
titude," but antiquity" of the Doctors alleged,
" unto which more honour
always hath been given than unto
novelties ;" he answereth, that indeed u every age hath always
attributed much unto antiquity ; and every old man, as the

poet saith, is a commender of the time past: but this,


saith he, we aver, that the
younger the Doctors are, the
more sharp-sighted they be." And therefore for his part
he yieldeth rather to the judgment of the younger Doctors
of Paris; 60 among whom " none is held worthy of the title
of a Master in Divinity, who hath not first bound himself
with a religious oath to defend and maintain the privilege
of the Blessed Virgin." Only he forgot to tell, how they
which take that oath might dispense with another oath
which the Pope requireth them to take; that 61 they " will
never understand and interpret the holy Scripture but
according to the uniform Consent of the Fathers."

57 Primo quidem agunt multitudine lisse ; et quilibet senex, ut quidam Poeta


Doctorum, quos errare in re tanti moment! dixit, laudator temporis acti. Sed illud
non est facile admittendum. Respondemus afferimus, quojuniores, eo perspicaciores
tamen ex Augustini libro i. de Morib. esse Doctores. Ibid.
Eccles. cap. 2, turn ex B. Thomae doctrina, 60 Nam in celeberrima Parisiorum Aca-
locum ab auctoritate esse infirmum. Sal- demia nullus Magistri in
Theologia titulo
mer. in Epist. ad Rom. lib. ii.
Disput. 51. dignus habetur, qui prius etiam jurisju-
58
Cum Donatistas in auctorum multitu- randi religione non se adstrinxerit ad hoc
dine gloriarentur ; respondit Augustinus, Virginis privilegium tuendum et propug-
signum esse causae a veritatis nervo desti- nandum. Ibid. Vide et Laur. Sur. Com-

tute, quae soli multorum auctoritati, qui mentar. Rer. in Orbe gestar. ann. 1501.
61
errare possunt, innititur. Ibid. Nee earn unquam nisi juxta unani-
69
Tertio argumenta petunt a Doctorum mem consensum Patrum accipiam, et

antiquitate, cui semper major honor est interpretabor. Bulla Pii iv. p. 4J8.

habitus,quam novitatibus. Respondetur, Bullarii a Petro Mattharo edit. Lugdun.


quamlibet a?tatem antiquitati semper dctu- ann. 1588.
26 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

Pererius, disputations upon the Epistle to the


in his
" 62 the Greek
Romans, confesseth, that Fathers, and not a
few of the Latin Doctors too, have thought, and delivered
also in their writings, that the cause of the predestination
of men unto everlasting life is the foreknowledge which
God had from eternity, either of the good works which they
were to do by co-operating with his grace, or of the faith
whereby they were to believe the word of God and to
obey his calling." And
yet he for his part notwithstanding
" 63
thinketh, that contrary to the holy Scripture,
this is

but especially to the doctrine of St Paul." If our questionist


had been bv him, he would have plucked his fellow by the
and taken him up in this manner " Will
sleeve, :
you say
that these Fathers maintained this opinion contrary to the
word of God? Why, you know that they were the pillars
of Christianity, the champions of Christ's Church, and of
the true Catholic religion, which they most learnedly de-
fended against divers heresies, and therefore spent all their
time in a most serious study of the holy Scripture." He
would also perhaps further challenge him as he doth us :

" Will
you say, that although they knew the Scriptures to
repugn, yet they brought in the aforesaid opinion by malice
and corrupt intentions ?" For sure he might have asked this
wise question of any of his own fellows, as well as of us,
who do " allow and esteem so much" of these blessed Doctors
and Martyrs of the ancient Church, (as he himself in the
end of his challenge doth acknowledge,) which verily we
should have little reason to do, if we did imagine that they
brought in opinions which they knew to be repugnant to the
" malice" or "
Scriptures, for any corrupt intentions." Indeed
men they were, compassed with the common infirmities of
our nature, and therefore subject unto error ; but gody
men, and therefore free from all malicious error.

62
Graeci Patres, nee pauci etiam Lati- vocation! ejus. Perer. in Horn. viii. sect.
norum Doctorum, arbitrati sunt, idque in 106.
63
scriptis suis prodiderunt, causam prae- Sed hoc videtur contrarium divinse
destinationis hominum ad vitam aeternam Scripture?, praecipue autem doctrinae B.
esse praescientiam quam Deus ab aeterno Pauli. Id. ibid. sect. 111. At enimvero
habuit, vel bonorum operum quaa facturi j
praescientiam fidei non esse rationem prae-
erant co-operando ipsius gratiae, vel fidei destinationis hominum, nullius est negotii

qua credituri erant verbo Dei, et obedituri multis et apertis Scripturac testimoniis
ostendere. Ibid. sect. 109.
I.]
GENERAL ANSWER. ^7

" their innocent


Howsoever, then, we yield unto you that
sanctity freeth us from all mistrust of
malicious corruption,"
we make " their
yet you must pardon us if question, whether
admirable learning may sufficiently cross out all suspicion of
" want of due
error," which may arise either of "affection," or
"
consideration," or such ignorance" as the very best are subject
unto in this life. For it is not admirable learning that is
sufficient to cross out but such an imme-
that suspicion ;

diate guidance of the the Prophets and


Holy Ghost as

Apostles were led by, who were the penners of the Canonical
Scripture. But this is
your old wont, to blind the eyes of
the simple with setting forth the sanctity and the learning
of the Fathers ; much
manner of your grandfather
after the

Pelagius, who of
in the
his books, which he writ in
third
defence of Free-will, thought he had struck all dead by his
" Blessed Ambrose the
commending of St Ambrose. Bishop,"
saith
64 " in whose books the Roman faithdoth especially
he,

appear, who like a beautiful flower shined among the Latin


writers, whose faith and most pure understanding in the

Scriptures the enemy himself durst not reprehend." Unto


whom St Augustine: " G5 Behold with what and how great
praises he extolleth a man, though holy and learned, yet
not to be compared unto the authority of the Canonical
Scripture." And
therefore, advance the learning and holiness
of these worthy men as much as you list ; other answer

you are not like to have from us, than that which the
same St Augustine maketh unto St Jerome " This reve- :
6fi

rence and honour have I learned to give to those books


of Scripture only which now are called Canonical, that I
most firmly believe none of their authors could any whit
err in writing. But others I so read, that with how great
sanctity and learning soever they do excel, I therefore think

64 68
Beatus AmbrosiusEpiscopuSjincujus Solis eis Scripturarum libris, qui jam

praecipue libris Romana elucet fides, qui Canonici appellantur, didici hunc timorem
scriptorum inter Latinos flos quidam spe- honoremque deferre, ut nullum eorum
ciosus enituit, cujus fidem et purissimum auctorem scribendo aliquid errasse firmis-
in Scripturis sensum ne inimicus quidem sime credam, &c. Alios autem ita lego,
ausus est reprehendere. ut quantalibet sanctitate doctrinaque prav
65
Ecce qualibus et quantis praedicat polleant, non ideo verum putem, quia ipsi
laudibus, quamlibet sanctum et doctum j
itasenserunt ; sed quia mihi vel per illos
virum, nequaquam tamen auctoritati Scrip- auctores canonicos, vel probabili ratione,
turae canonicac comparandum. August.de quod a vero non abhorrcat, persuadere
(rratia Christi, cent. Pelag. lib. i.
cap. 4'.>. potucrunt. Aug. Ep. ](.
28 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

not any thing to be true, because they so thought it; but


because they were able to persuade me, either by those
Canonical authors, or by some probable reason, that it did
not swerve from truth."
Yet even to this field also do our challengers provoke
us ; and " the Fathers' authority will not suffice," they offer
if
"
to produce good and certain grounds out of the sacred
Scriptures" for confirmation of all the points of their religion
which they have mentioned: yea, further, they challenge
"
any Protestant to allege any one text out of the said Scrip-
ture, which condemneth any of the above-written points." At
which boldness of theirs we should much wonder, but that
we consider that bankrupts commonly do then most brag of
their ability, when their estate is at the lowest; perhaps
also, that ignorance might be it that did beget in them this
boldness. For if they had been pleased to take the advice
of their learned Council, their Canonists would have told
them touching Confession, (which is one of their points,) that
" 67 it were better to
hold, that it was ordained by a certain
tradition of the universal Church, than by the authority of
the New or Old Testament." Melchior Canus 68 could have
put them in mind, that it is no where
expressed in Scripture
that " Christ descended into hell to deliver the souls of Adam
and the rest of the Fathers which were detained there." And
Dominicus Bannes, 69 that the holy Scriptures teach, neither
" that
expresse, nor yet impresse et involute > prayers are to
be made unto Saints," or that " their images are to be wor-
shipped." Or, if the testimony of a Jesuit will more prevail
with them; " that images should be worshipped, Saints
prayed unto, auricular confession frequented, sacrifices cele-
brated both for the quick and the dead, and other things
of this kind," 70 Fr. Coster would have to be reckoned

among divine traditions, which be not laid down in the


Scriptures.
Howsoever yet the matter standeth, we have no reason
but willingly to accept of their challenge, and to require
them to bring forth those " good and certain grounds out of

67 70
Gloss, in Gratian. de Pcenit. Dist. Coster, in Compendiosa Orthodoxa?
cap. 5. In Poenitentia. Fidei Demonst. Propos. v. cap. 2. p. 162.
68
Can. lib. iii. loc. Theolog. cap. 4. edit. Colon, ann. 1607-
69
Bann. in u. Qu. 1. art. 10. col. 302.
I.]
<. l.MERAL ANSWER. 29

the sacred Scriptures," for confirmation of all the articles by


them propounded ; as also to let them see whether we " be
able to allege any text of Scripture which condemneth any
of those points ;" although I must confess it will be a hard
matter to make them see any thing, which beforehand have
resolved to close eyes ; having their minds so pre-
their

occupied with prejudice, that they profess, before ever we


begin, they hold for certain that we shall never be able to
produce any such text. And why, think you ? Because,
forsooth, we "
more learned, more pious, nor more
are neither

holy, than the blessed Doctors and Martyrs of that first


Church of Rome:" as who should say, we yielded at the
first word that all those blessed Doctors and
Martyrs ex-
pounded the Scriptures every where to our disadvantage, or
were so well persuaded of the tenderness of a Jesuit's con-
science, that because he hath taken an oath never to interpret
the Scripture but according to the uniform consent of the
Fathers, he could not therefore have the forehead to say,
" 71 I do not
deny that I have no author of this interpreta-
tion ;
yet do I so much the rather approve it than that
other of Augustine's, though the most probable of all the
rest, because it is more contrary to the sense of the
Calvinists, which to me is a great argument of probability :"
or as if, lastly, a man might not dissent from the ancient
Doctors, so much
as in an exposition of a text of Scripture,
but he must presently, make himself " more learned, more
" more
pious," and holy" than they were.
Yet their great Tostatus might have taught them,
72
that this argument holdeth not: " Such a one knoweth
some conclusion that Augustine did not know ; therefore he

71 Non nego me hujus interpretationis ,


comparantur, sicut pusillus homo positus
auctorem neminem habere sed hanc eo : ad ipsum gigantem. Nam
collo gigantis

magis probo quam illam alteram Augus- j

pusillus ibi positus videt quicquid vidit


tini,ceterarum alioqui probabilissimam ; j
gigas, et insuper plus ; et tarn en si depo-
quod haec cum Calvinistarum sensu magis !
natur de collo gigantis, parum aut nihil
pugnet quod mihi magnum est probabi-
: videbit ad gigantem collatus. Ita et nos
litatis argumentum. Maldonat. in Johan. firmati super ingenia antiquorum et opera
vi. 62. eorum, non esset admirandum, immo foret
72 Sed nee ista argumentatio valet, sc. valde rationabile, si videremus quidquid
Iste homo scit aliquam conclusionem, illi viderunt, et insuper plus ; licet hoc

quam nescivit Aug. ergo est sapientior adhuc non profitemur. Abulens. p. n.
Aug Et sicut quidam peritus medicus Defensor. cap. 18.
dixit, homines nostri temporis ad antiques
30 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

is wiser than Augustine ;" because, " as a certain skilful phy-


sician said, the men of our time being compared with the
ancient are like unto a upon a giant's neck,
little man set

compared with the giant himself. For as that little man


placed there seeth whatsoever the giant seeth, and somewhat
more, and yet if he be taken down from the giant's neck
would see little or nothing in comparison of the giant even ;

so we, being settled upon the wits and works of the ancients,
it were not to be wondered, nay it should be very agreeable
unto reason, that we should see whatsoever they saw, and
somewhat more. Though yet," saith he, " we do not profess
so much." And even to the same effect speaketh Friar
Stella, that though it be far from him to condemn the common
" 73 Yet he
exposition given by the ancient holy Doctors,
1
knoweth full well, that pygmies being put upon giants shoul-
ders do see further than the giants themselves."" Salmeron
" 74 that the increase of time divine
addeth, by mysteries
have been made known, which before were hid from many ;
so that to know them now, is to be attributed unto the
benefit of the time; not that we are better than our Fathers
were." Bishop Fisher,
75
that u it cannot be obscure unto

any, that many things, as well in the Gospels as in the


rest of the Scriptures, are now more exquisitely discussed
by latter wits, and more clearly understood, than they have
been heretofore; either by reason that the ice was not as
yet broken unto the ancient, neither did their age suffice
to weigh exactly that whole sea of the Scriptures or because ;

in this most large field of the Scriptures, even after the most
diligent reapers, some ears will remain to be gathered, as yet
untouched." Hereupon Cardinal Cajetan, in the beginning

73 multa
Bene tamen scimus, pygmaeos gigan- posterioribus ingeniis sint, tarn ex
turn humeris impositos plusquam ipsos i

evangeliis quam ex scripturis ceteris,

gigan tes videre. Stella, Enarrat. in Luc. 1 nunc excussa luculentius, et intellecta per-

cap. 10. I
spicacius, quam fuerant olim. Nimirum,
74 Per incrementa temporum nota facta i
aut quia veteribus adhuc non erat perfracta
sunt divina mysteria, quse tamen antea j
glacies, neque sufficiebat illorum aetas to-
multos latuerunt: ita uc hoc loco nosse tumilludscripturarumpelagusadamussim
beneficium sit temporis, non quod nos |
expendere; aut quia semper in amplissimo
meliores simus quam Patres nostri. j

scripturarum campo, post messores quan-


Salmeron. in Epist. ad Roman, lib. ii. tumvis exquisitissimos, spicas adhuc in-
Disput. 51. tactas licebit colligere. R off ens. Confut.
75
Neque cuiquam obscurum est, quin Assert. Luther. Art. 18.
I
GENERAL ANSWER. 31

of his Commentaries upon Moses, adviseth his reader " 7G not


to loathe the new sense of the holy Scripture for this, that
it dissenteth from the ancient Doctors; but to search more
exactly the text and context of the Scripture, and if he find
it
agree, to praise God that hath not tied the exposition of
the Scriptures to the senses of the ancient Doctors."
But leaving comparisons, which you know are odious,
(the envy whereof notwithstanding your own Doctors and
Masters, you see, help us to bear off, and teach us how to
decline,) I now come to the examination of the particular

points by you propounded. be your part


It should, indeed,

by right to be the assailant, who first did make the challenge ;

and I, who sustain the person of the defendant, might here


well stay, accepting only your challenge and expecting your
encounter. Yet do not I mean at this time to answer your
bill of
challenge, as bills are usually answered in the Chan-
cery, with saving all advantages to the defendant I am :

content in this also to abridge myself of the liberty which


I might lawfully take, and make a further demonstration of
my forwardness in undertaking the maintenance of so good
a cause, by giving the first onset myself.

OF TRADITIONS.
To begin therefore with Traditions , which your is

forlorn hope, that in the first


place we are to setupon :

this must I needs tell


you before we begin, that you
much mistake the matter, if you think that Traditions of
all sorts
promiscuously are struck at by our religion. We
willingly acknowledge, that the word of God, which by
some of the Apostles was set down in writing, was both
by themselves and others of their fellow-labourers delivered
by word of mouth and that the Church in succeeding
;

ages was bound not only to preserve those sacred writings


76 Nullus itaque detestetur novum sacra- si quadrare invenerit, laudet Deum, qui
scripturae sensum ex hoc quod dissonat a non alligavit expositionem scripturarum
priscisDoctoribus; sed scrutetur perspi- sacrarum priscorum Doctorum sensibus.
cacius textum ac contextum scripturae et :
Cajet. in (renes. i.
32 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

committed to her trust, but also to deliver unto her children


viva voce the form of wholesome words contained therein.
Traditions, therefore, of this nature come not within the
compass of our controversy: the question being betwixt us,
de ipsa doctrina tradita, not de tradendi modo ; " touching
the substance of the doctrine delivered, not of the manner
of delivering it." Again, it must be remembered, that here
we speak of the doctrine delivered as " the word of God,"
that of points of religion revealed unto the Prophets and
is,

Apostles for the perpetual information of God's people;


not of rites and ceremonies and other ordinances which are
left to the disposition of the Church, and consequently be
not of divine, but of positive and human right. Traditions
therefore of this kind likewise are not properly brought within
the circuit of this question.
But that Traditions of men should be obtruded unto
us for articles of religion, and admitted for parts of God's
worship ; or that any Traditions should be accepted for
parcels of God's word, beside the holy Scriptures and such
doctrines as are either expressly therein contained, or by
sound inference may be deduced from thence ; I think we
have reason to gainsay, as long as for the first we have this
direct sentencefrom God himself, Matth. xv. In vain do :

they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments


of men ; and for the second, the express warrant of the
Apostle, 2 Tim. iii. testifying of the holy Scriptures, not
only that they are able to make us wise unto salvation,
(which they should not be able to do, if they did not contain
all
things necessary to salvation,) but also that by them
theman of God(that is, Hhe
minister of God's word, unto
whom it appertaineth
2
to declare all the counsel of God,)

may be perfectly instructed to every good work : which could


not be, if the Scriptures did not contain all the counsel of
God which was fit for him to learn, or if there were any
other word of God which he were bound to teach, that should
not be contained within the limits of the book of God.
Now whether we disagree from the doctrine
herein
generally received by the Fathers, we refer ourselves to their
own sayings. For ritual Traditions unwritten, and for doc-
trinal Traditions written indeed, but preserved also by the
1 2
I Tim. vi. 11. Acts xx. 27.
OK TRADITIONS. 33

continual preaching of the Pastors of the Church successively,


we find no man a more earnest advocate than Tertullian.
Yet he having to deal with Hermogenes the heretic in a
question concerning the faith, Whether all things at the

beginning were made of nothing ? presseth him in this


manner, with the argument ab auctoritate negative^ for
avoiding whereof the Papists are driven to fly for succour
to their unwritten verities: " 3 Whether all things were made
of any subject matter, I have as yet read nowhere. Let
those of Hermogenes's shop shew that it is written. If it
be not written, let them fear that woe which is allotted to
such as add or take away."
" 4
In the two Testaments, every word saith Origen,
that appertaineth to God may
be required and discussed,
and all knowledge of things out of them may be understood.
But if any thing do remain which the holy Scripture doth
not determine, no other third Scripture ought to be received
to authorize any knowledge ; but that which remaineth
we must commit to the fire, that is, we must reserve it to
God. For in this present world God would not have us
to know all
things."
Hippolytus the Martyr, in his Homily against the
" 5 There one God, whom we do not
Heresy of Noe'tus: is

otherwise acknowledge, brethren, but out of the holy Scrip-


tures. For as he that would profess the wisdom of this
world cannot otherwise attain hereunto, unless he read the
doctrine of the philosophers; so whosoever of us will exercise

piety toward God, cannot learn this elsewhere but out of


the holy Scriptures. Whatsoever therefore the holy Scrip-

3
An autem de aliqua subjacent! mate- in prsesenti vita Deus scire nos omnia
ria facta sint omnia, nusquam adhuc legi. voluit. Orig. in Levit. Horn. v.
5
Scriptum esse doceat Hermogenis officina. Unus Deus est, quern non aliunde, fra-
Si non est scriptum, timeat vae illud ad- tres, agnoscimus, quamex sanctisscriptu-
jicientibus aut detrahentibus destinatum. ris. Quemadmodum enim, si quis vellet
Tertul. advers. Hermog. cap. 22. sapientiam hujus seculi exercere, non
4 In quibus liceat omne verbum quod ad aliter hoc consequi poterit, nivsi dogmata
Deum pertinetrequiri et discuti ; atque ex philosophorum legat; quicunque vo-sic

ipsis omnem rerum scientiam capi. Si lumus pietatem in Deuni exercere, non
quid autem superfuerit, quod non divina aliunde discemus, quam ex scripturis di-
Scriptura decernat, nullam aliam debere vinis. Quascunque ergo sancta? scripturse
tertiam Scripturam ad auctoritatem scien- praedicant, sciamus ; et quaacunque docent,
tiae
suscipi, sed igni tradamus quod super - cognoscamus. Hippol. Tom . 1 1 1. Biblioth A
est, id est, Deo reserremus. Neque enim Pat. p. 20, 21. edit. Colon.
c
34 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [cMAP.

tures do preach, that let us know; and whatsoever they


teach, that let us understand."
Athanasius, in his Oration against the Gentiles, toward
the "
The holy Scriptures, given by inspira-
6
beginning:
tion of God, are of themselves sufficient to the discovery of
truth."
St Ambrose: "'The things which we find not in the
Scriptures, how can we use them?" And again: " 8 I read
that he is the first, I read that he is not the second; they
who the second, let them shew it by reading."
say he is
" It is 9 " that thou art content
well," saith St Hilary,
with those things which be written." And in another place
he -commendeth Constantius the Emperor for " desiring
10

the faith to be ordered only according to those things that


be written."
St Basil " n Believe those : which are written
things ;
12
the things which are not written, seek not. It is a mani-
fest falling from the faith, and an argument of arrogancy,
either to reject any point of those things that are written,
or to bring in any of those things that are not written."
He teacheth further, " 13 that every word and action ought
to be confirmed by the testimony of the holy Scripture, for
confirmation of the faith of the good, and the confusion
of the evil;" and " that
the property of a faithful man it is

to be fully persuaded of the truth of those things that are


delivered in the holy Scripture, 14 and not to dare either to

6
AvTct/OKets fJLev yap e'uriv at dyiai nal yeypa/JL/jieva jurj ^rj-ret. Basil. Horn. XXIX.
QeoTTvevcrToi ypa<pai, irpo? TJJI/ Ttfs a'Xtj- advers. Calumniantes S. Trinitat.
0etas ctTrayyeXiai/. Athanas. 12
3>avepd CKr-TTTuxTts Trio-Tews, /cat v
7
Quae in scripturis sanctis non reperi- ri(pavla<i KaTtjyopia, 17 aOereli/ TI
mus, ea quemadmodura usurpare possu- yeypafMfMevcov, rj eireiadyeiv TWV fii ye-
mus ? Ambros. Offic. lib. i.
cap. 23. ypa/j.fj.ev(av.
Id. de Fide.
8 13
Lego quia primus est, lego quia non "O-ri <5ei TTOLV prjfia fj Tr/oay/ua
est secundus illi qui secundum aiunt,
:
napTvpia T/S 6eoTrvev<TTOv ypa-
doceant lectione. Id. in Virginis Instit. (pfjs, Tr\ripo<popiav pev TWV dyaQwv,
cap. 11. TWV Trovrjpwv. Id. in Ethicis,
9
Bene
habet, ut iis quae sunt scripta Regul. xvi.
14
contentus sis. Hil. lib. iii. de Trinit. Kai Tokfiqv dfteTe
[jLTidev
10 In quantum ego nunc beatae TaffarearQai. El ydp Trait, o OVK
religio-
sacque voluntatis vere te, Domine Con- dfJiapTia GffTiv, w's cpricriv o
stanti Imperator, admiror, fideni tantum 17 Be
Trto-Tis e^ o/cotjs, TJ #c aKor\ Sid pnt* a ~

secundum ea quse scripta sunt desideran- TOS Qeov' Trdv TO e/CTOs TIJS
tem. Id. lib. ii. ad Constantium Aug.
Reg. LXXX. cap.
11
Tots yey/oo/x/xei/ojs Triarreve, TOE ^t) Id. ibid. 22.
II.]
OF TRADITIONS. 35

reject or to add any thing thereunto. For if whatsoever


is not of faith be as the Apostle saith, and faith is by
sin,

hearing, and hearing by the word of God ; then whatsoever


is without the
holy Scripture, being not of faith, must needs
be sin." Thus far St Basil.
In like manner Gregory Nyssen, St Basil's brother,
this for a " 15 which no man should contra-
layeth ground,
"
in that only the truth must be acknowledged,
dict," that
wherein the seal of the Scripture testimony is to be seen."
And accordingly in another book, attributed also unto him,
we find this conclusion made: " 16 Forasmuch as this is

upholden with no testimony of the Scripture, as false we


will reject it."
Thus also St Jerome disputeth against Helvidius :
" 17
As
we deny not those things that are written, so we refuse
those things that are not written. That God was born
of a Virgin we believe, because we read it : that Mary did
marry after she was delivered, we believe not, because we
read it not."
" In those ls
saith St " which are
things," Augustine,
laid down plainly in the Scriptures, all those things are
found which appertain to faith and direction of life." And
" 19 Whatsoever hear" from the
again: ye holy Scriptures,
" let that savour well unto
you ; whatsoever is without
them, refuse, lest you wander in a cloud." And in another
" *A11 those
place: things which in times past our ancestors
have mentioned to be done toward mankind, and have de-
livered unto us; all those things also which we see, and do
deliver unto our posterity, so far as
they appertain to the
15 18
Ka'v TIS av avrfiiroi, /ut; ovyi ev In iis quae aperte in scriptura posita
TOVTW fjiovto TJJI; aXrj0ftov Ti0e'<r0a>, w sunt, inveniuntur ilia omnia quae continent
er^payts eTrea-TL TT/S y/oa^iKtjs naprvpias. fidem moresque vivendi. Aug. de Doc-
Greg. Nyss. Dialog, de Anima et Resur-
j
trina Christ, lib. ii.
cap. 9.
rect. Tom. i. edit. Graecolat. p. 639. 19
Quicquid inde audieritis, hoc vobis
16
Cum id nullo scripturae testimonio bene sapiat quicquid extra est respuite,
:

suft'ultum sit, ut falsum improbabimus. j


ne erretis in nebula. Id. in lib. de Pastor.
Lib. de Cognit. Dei, cit. ab Euthymio in j ca p. 11.
Panoplia, Tit. viu. so Omnia quae prseteritis temporibus
Ut haec quae scripta sunt non nega-
17
( erga humamim genus majores nostri gesta
mus; ita ea quae non sunt scripta renui- esse meminerunt, nobisque tradiderunt ;

mus. Natum Deum esse de Virgine cre- omnia etiam quae nos videmus, et posteris
dimus, quia legimus Mariam nupsisse
:
tradimus, quae tamen pertinent ad veram
post partum non credimus, quia non legi- religionem quaerendam et tenendam, di-
mus. Hieron. advers. Helvid. .
vina scriptura non tacuit. Id. Epist. xi.n.
36 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

seeking and maintaining of true religion, the holy Scripture


hath not passed in silence."
"The holy Scripture,"
21
saith St Cyril of Alexandria,
" is sufficient to make them which are brought up in it wise
and most approved, and furnished with most sufficient under-
standing." And again: " 22 That which the holy Scripture
hath not said, by what means should we receive and account
it
among those things that be true?"
Lastly, in the writings of Theodoret we meet with
these kind of speeches: " 23 By the holy Scripture alone am
I persuaded." " 24 I am not so bold as to affirm
any thing
which the sacred Scripture passeth in silence." " 25 It is an
idle and a senseless thing to seek those things that are
passed
" 26 We
in silence." ought not to seek those things which are
passed in silence, but rest in the things that are written."
By the verdict of these twelve men you may judge,
what opinion was held
times of such in those ancient
Traditions as did cross either the verity or the perfection
of the sacred Scripture, which are the Traditions we set
ourselves against. Whereunto you may add, if you please,
that remarkable sentence delivered by Eusebius
Pamphili in
the name of the 318 Fathers of the first
general Council of
Nice: " 27 Believe the
things that are written; the things
that are not written, neither think upon nor enquire after."
If now it be demanded, in what Pope's days the contrary
doctrine was brought in among Christians; I answer, that
if St Peter were ever Pope, in his
days it was that some
seducers first laboured to bring in will- worship into the
Church against ; whom
St Paul opposing himself (Coloss. ii.),
counteth it a sufficient argument to condemn all such inven-

21 25
Sufficit divina Scriptura ad faciendum HepiTTov Kal dvorjTov TO rd <recrt-
eos qui in ilia educati sunt sapientes, et yr)/mevat)TeTv. Id. in Exod. Quaest. XXVI.

probatissimos, et sufficientissimam haben- quod in Graecorum Catena in Pentateu-


tes intelligentiam. Cyril, lib. vii. cont. JuL chum, a Franc. Zephyro edita, ita expo-
i2
"O yap OUK etpr]KV Qeta ypafpi], rj situm legimus: Impudentis est, quod a
Tiva Se TpoTrov TrapadefcofieQa, KO.I ev TOIS scriptura reticetur, velle inquirere.
26
aXrj6a>ejfovai /caTaXoyiouyneOa ; Cyril. Ou SeT ^r/relj/ Ta <reariyrifjieva, (TTep-
Glaphyrorum, in Gen. lib. ii. yeiv oe TrpoarrjKCi TCC yeypafi/Aeva. Theod.
23
Eyto yap fiov-ij ireiQofJiai rrj Qeia in Gen. Qu. XLV.
!7
ypatprj. Theod. Dial. i. 'ATpeiTT.
Tols yeypa/j.fj.evoi<s iriorTeve' -rd /J.YJ
24 Ou yap OUTOJS fifj.1 6pa<rvs, worre <pd- yeypafifieva /it) evvoei, /UTJOC ^t/Tet. Gelas.
vai TI creariytmevov irapd -rrj Qeia ypafpij. Cyzicen. Act. Concil. Nicen. part. n.
Id. Dial. IT. cap. 19.
II. OF TRADITIONS.

tions, that they were the commandments and doctrines of


men. Shortly after them started up other heretics, who
that " ~8
the truth could not be found out of the
taught,
Scriptures by those to whom Tradition was unknown,
for-

asmuch as it was not delivered by writing, but by word of


mouth ; for which cause St Paul also should say, We speak
1 ''

wisdom among them that be perfect.'


The very same text do the 29 Jesuits allege to prove the
dignity many mysteries to be such that they require
of
silence; and that it is unmeet they should be opened in the
Scriptures, which are read to the whole world,
and therefore
can only be learned by unwritten Traditions. Wherein they
consider not, how they make so near an approach unto the
confines of some of the ancientest heretics, that they may
well shake hands together. For howsoever some of them
30
were so mad say, that they
as to were wiser than the Apostles
themselves, and therefore made light account of the doctrine
which they delivered unto the Church, either by writing or
by word of mouth ; yet all of them broke not forth into
that open impiety the same mystery of iniquity wrought
:

in some of Antichrist's forerunners then, which is discovered


now. " 31
in his ministers They confessed indeed," as wit-
" that the
nesseth Tertullian, Apostles were ignorant of
nothing, and differed not among themselves in their preaching ;

but they say, they revealed not all things unto all men :

some things they delivered openly and to all, some things


secretly and to a few, because that Paul useth this speech
unto Timothy O Timothy, keep that which is committed
:

to thy trust. And again That good thing which was com- :

mitted unto thee, keep" Which very texts the ^Jesuits

28 traditioni consentire eos. Iren. ut


Quianon possitex his inveniri veritas que
ab his, qui nesciant Tradition em. Non sup.
31
enim per literas traditam illam, sed per Confitentur quidem nihil Apostolos
vivam vocem ob quam causam et Paulum
:
ignorasse, nee diversa inter se praedicasse,
dixisse; Sapientiam autem loquimur in- sed non omnia illos volunt omnibus reve-
ter perfectos. Iren. cont. Haeres. lib. iii. lasse quaedam enim palam et universis,
:

cap. 2. quaedam secreto et paucis demandasse,


29
Bellarm. lib. iv. de Verbo Dei, quia et hoc verbo usus est Paulus ad
cap. 8. Timotheum : O Timothee, depositum
30
Dicentes, se non solum Presbyteris, custodi. Et rursum : Bonum depositum
sed etiam Apostolis existentes sapien- custodi. Tertul. de Prajscrip. advers.

tiores,sinceram invenisse veritatem, &c. Hacret. cap. 25.


32 Verbo Dei, cap.
Evenit itaque neque scripturis jam ne- Bellar. lib. iv. de 5.
38 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

likewise bring in to prove, that there are some Traditions


which are not contained in the Scripture.
In the days of St Jerome also this was wont to be the
" 33 We
saying of heretics: are the sons of the wise men,
which from the beginning have delivered the doctrine of the
M those
Apostles unto us." But things, saith that Father,
" which of themselves find and feign to have re-
they out,
ceived as it were
by Tradition from the Apostles, without
the authority and testimonies of the Scriptures, the sword
of God doth smite." 35 St Chrysostom in like manner giveth
this for a mark of Antichrist and of all
spiritual thieves,
that they come not in by the door of the Scriptures. For
the Scripture, saith he, " 36 like unto a sure door, doth bar
an entrance unto heretics, safeguarding us in all things that
we will, and not suffering us to be deceived." Whereupon
he concludeth, that " 37 whoso useth not the Scriptures, but
cometh in otherwise, that is, betaketh himself to another
and an unlawful way, he is a thief."
How this mystery of iniquity wrought when Antichrist
came unto his full growth, and what experiments his followers
gave of their thievish entry in this kind, was well observed
by the author of the book De Unitate Ecclesice, (thought
by some to be Waltram, Bishop of Naumburg ;) who, speaking
of the w Monks, that for the upholding of Pope Hildebrand's
faction brought in schisms and heresies into the Church,
noteth this of that "
especially the Tradi-
them, despising
tion of God, they desired other doctrines, and brought in
magisteries of human institution." Against whom he allege th
the authority of their own St Benedict, the father of the

38 37
Filii sumus sapientum, qui ab initio 'O ydp /u.j
Tals ypatfrals x
doctrinam nobis Apostolicam tradiderunt. dXXd dvafiaivcav d\\a^6dev, rovTearriv,
Hieron. lib. vii. in Esa. cap. 19. eTepav eavrw Kal ^j i/ei/o/utayievTji/ TC/JLVIOV
34
Sed et alia, quae absque auctoritate et odov, OUTOS /cXeTTTtjs e<rrii/. Ibid.
testimoniis scripturarum, quasi traditione 38
Quale mysterium iniquitatis praeten-
apostolica, sponte reperiunt atque confin- dunt plures Monachi in veste sua, per quos
gunt, percutit gladius l)ei. Id. in Agge. fiunt et facta sunt schismata atque haereses
1.
cap. in Ecclesia qui etiam a matre filios segre-
:

35
Chrysost in Johan. x. Horn. LIX.
gant, oves a pastore sollicitant, Dei sacra-
Tom. n. edit. Savil. p. 799. menta disturbant qui etiam Dei traditione
:

36
KaOdire/o yap -rts Bvpa d<r<aXjs, contempta, alienas doctrinas appetunt, et
ol/Ttos diroK\iei TOIS aipeTiKols Ttjv e'Lao-
magisteria humanae institutionis inducunt.
$ov, kv d<r<aXeia Ka0i(rra)<ra rj^as irepl Lib. de Unitat. Eccles. Tom. i. Script.
tav dv (Bov\<ofie6a irdvrwv, Kctt OVK ecotra Germanic, a M. Frehero edit. p. 233.
7r\ai/a<r6ot. Ibid.
II.]
OF TRADITIONS. 39

Monks " 39
The Abbot ought
in the West, writing thus:
to ordain, or command nothing which is without
teach, or
the precept of the Lord ; but his commandment or instruc-
tion should be spread as the leaven of divine righteousness
in the minds of his disciples." Whereunto he might also
have added the testimony of the two famous Fathers of
monastical discipline in the East; St Anthony, I mean,
who taught the Scriptures were sufficient
his scholars that " 40

for doctrine ;" and St Basil, who, unto the question, Whether
it were
expedient that novices should presently learn those
that are in this answer:
the Scripture? returneth
things
" 41
It is fit one should learn out
and necessary that every
of the holy Scripture that which is for his use, both for
his full settlement in godliness, and that he may not be
accustomed unto human Traditions."
Mark here the difference betwixt the Monks of St Basil
and Pope Hildebrand's breeding. The novices of the former
were trained in the Scriptures, to the end " they might not
be accustomed unto human Traditions:" those of the latter,
to the clean contrary intent, were kept back from the study
"
of the Scriptures, that they might be accustomed unto
human Traditions." For this by the foresaid author is

expressly noted of those Hildebrandine Monks, that they


*' 42
permitted not young
in their monasteries to men
study
this savingknowledge, end that their rude wit might
to the
be nourished with the husks of devils, which are the customs
of human Traditions, that, being accustomed to such filth,

they might not taste how sweet the Lord was." And even
thus in the times following, from Monks to Friars, and
from them to secular Priests and Prelates, as it were by

39
Ideoque nihil debet Abbas extra prse- j
Odveiv e/c TTJS QeoTrveva-rov y/oa<?js aVo-
ceptum Domini quod sit (or rather, as it is \ovQov icai re ir?
dvajKdiov, eis
in the Manuscript which I use, quod absit) T7s 6eoae/3eias, Kai inr^p TOV /xrj
autdocere, aut constituere, vel jubere sed :
<r0tji/at dvQpunrivai? Trapadoareffiv. Basil.

jussio ejus vel doctrina, ut fermentum di- in Regul. breviorib. op. 95.
42
vinaa justitias in discipulorum mentibus Qui ne pueros quidem vel adolescentes
conspergatur. Benedict, in Regul. permittunt in monasteriis habere studium
10
Tas y/oa<a t/cai/as elvai IT/DOS oi(5a- ut scilicet rude ingenium
salutaris scientiae :

a-KoXiav. Athanas. in Vita Antonii, quod nutriatur siliquis demoniorum, quae sunt

Evagrius Antiochenus presbyter reddi- consuetudines humanarum traditionum ;

dit : Ad omnem mandatorum disciplinam ut ejusmodi spurcitiis assuefacti, non pos-

scripturas posse sufficere. sint gustare quam suavis est Dominus.


11
To Trpos T/V x/oei'ai/ eVao-Toi/ eK/uiav- Lib. de Unitat. Eccles. p. 228.
40 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

Tradition from hand to hand, the like ungodly policy was


continued of keeping the common people from the knowledge
the Scriptures; as for other reasons, so likewise that by
^of
thismeans they might be drawn to " human Traditions."
43
Which was not only observed by Erasmus, before ever
Luther stirred against the Pope, but openly in a manner
confessed afterwards by a bitter adversary of his, Petrus
Sutor, a Carthusian Monk, who among other inconveniences,
for which he would have the people debarred from reading
the Scripture, allegeth this also for one: ""Whereas many
things are openly taught to be observed which are not to
be expressly had in the holy Scriptures, will not the simple

people, observing these things, quickly murmur and com-


plain that so great burdens
should be imposed upon them,

whereby the liberty of the Gospel is so greatly impaired ?


Will not they also easily be drawn away from the observation
of the ordinances of the Church, when they shall observe that
they are not contained in the law of Christ ?"
Having thus therefore discovered unto these Deuterotas
45
(for so St Jerome useth to style such Tradition-mongers)
both their great-grandfathers and their more immediate pro-
genitors, I pass now forward unto the second point.

43 Verum enimvero Erasm. in Enarrat.


vereor, ne isti qui sunt. i.
Psalmi, edit,

velint populum nihil attingere, non tarn ann. 1515.

periculo commoveantur illorum quam sui 44


Cum multa palam tradantur obser-
respectu ; ab istis solis, velut
videlicet ut vanda, quse sacris in literis expresse non
ab oraculis, petantur omnia. Quid hac de habentur; nonne idiotae haec animadver-
re scriptum est ? hoc scriptum est. Quern tentes facile murmurabunt, conquerentes
habet sensum, quod scriptum est? Sic cur tantae sibi imponantur sarcinae, quibus
intellige, sic senti, sic loquere.Atqui et libertas Evangelica ita graviter ele-
istuc est bubalum esse, non hominem. vatur? Nonne et facile retrahentur ab
Fortassis movet et nonnullos, quoniam observantia institutionum Ecclesiastica-
animadvertunt divinam scripturam parum rum, quando eas in lege Christi animadver-
quadrare ad vitam suam, malunt earn an- terint non contineri ? Sutor de Tralatione

tiquari, aut certe nesciri; ne quid hinc Bibliee, cap. 22. fol. 96. edit. Paris, ann.
jaciatur in os. Et ad humanas traditiun- 1525.
45
culas populum avocant, quas ipsi ad Hieronym. lib. ii. Comment, in Esai.
suam commoditatem probe commend cap. 3. et lib. ix. in Esai. cap. 29.
III.J

OF THE REAL PRESENCE:

How far the Real Presence of the body of Christ in the

Sacrament allowed or disallowed by us, I have at large


is

declared in Another place.


The sum is this: That in the
receiving of the Sacrament we are to distinguish
blessed
between the outward and the inward action of the com-
municant. In the outward, with our bodily mouth we
receive really the visible elements of bread and wine; in
the inward, we do by faith really receive the body and blood
of our Lord ; that is to say, we are truly and indeed made
to the
partakers of Christ crucified, spiritual strengthening
of our inward man. They of the adverse part have made
such a confusion of these things, that for the first they do
utterly deny, that after the words of consecration there
remaineth any bread or wine at be received ; and for
all to
the second, do affirm that the body and blood of Christ is
in such a manner present under the outward shews of bread
and wine, that whosoever receiveth the one (be he good or
bad, believer or unbeliever) doth therewith really receive
the other. We
are, therefore, here put to prove that bread
is bread, and wine is wine; a matter, one would think, that
" That which
easily might be determined by common sense.
2 " is the bread and the cup,
you see," saith St Augustine,
which your very eyes do declare unto you." But because
we have to deal with men that will needs herein be senseless,
3
we
)

will for this time refer them to Tertullian' s Discourse


of the Five Senses, (wishing they may be restored to the
use of their five wits again,) and ponder the testimonies
of our Saviour Christ, in the sixth of John, and in the
words of the institution, which they oppose against all sense,
but in the end shall find to be as opposite to this fantastical
conceit of theirs as any thing can be.

1
Sermon at Westminster before the apud Bedam, in 1 Cor. x. et Ratrannum
House of Commons, ann. 1620. de Corp. et Sang. Dom. vel in Serm. de
2
Quod ergo vidistis, panis est et calix ; Verb. Dom. ut citatur ab Algero, lib. i.
quod vobis etiam oculi vestri renunciant. de Sacr. cap. 5.

A ujr. in Serni. de Sacram. aptid Fulgentium 3


Tert. in lib. de Anima, cap. 17, cui
in fine libelli de Uaptismo /Ethiopis, ct titulus, De Quinque Sensibus.
ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

Touching our Saviour's speech of the eating of his Jtesh


and the drinking of his blood, in the sixth of John, these
five things specially may be observed First, that the ques- :

tion betwixt our adversaries and us being, not whether Christ's

body be turned into bread, but whether bread be turned


into Christ's body, the words in St John, if they be pressed

literally, serve more strongly to prove


the former than the
latter. Secondly, that this sermon was uttered by our Saviour
above a year before the celebration of his Last Supper,
wherein the Sacrament of his body and blood was instituted ;

at which time none of his hearers could possibly have under-


stood him to have spoken of the external eating of him in
the Sacrament. Thirdly, that by the eating of the flesh of
Christ and the drinking of his blood, there is not here meant
an external eating or drinking with the mouth and throat
of the body, (as the 4 Jews then, and the Romanists far more

grossly than they have since, imagined,) but an internal


and a spiritual, effected by a lively faith and the quickening
Spirit of Christ in the soul of the believer. For " 5 there
is a spiritual mouth of the inner man," as St Basil noteth,
" wherewith he is nourished that is made
partaker of the
word of life, which is the bread that cometh down from
heaven." Fourthly, that this spiritual feeding upon the
body and blood of Christ is not to be found in the Sacra-
ment only, but also out of the Sacrament. Fifthly, that
the eating of the flesh and the drinking of the blood here
mentioned is of such excellent virtue, that the receiver is

thereby made to remain and Christ in him, and


in Christ

by that means certainly freed from death, and assured of

everlasting life. Which seeing it cannot be verified of the


eating of the Sacrament, (whereof both the godly and the
wicked are partakers,) it proveth, not only that our Saviour
did not here speak of the sacramental eating, but further
also, that the thing which is delivered in the external part
of the Sacrament cannot be conceived to be really, but sacra-
mentally only, the flesh and blood of Christ.
The first of these may be plainly seen in the text,
where our Saviour doth not only say, I am the bread of life,

4
John vi. 52. fidvtav TOV Xoyov TT^S eJ)s, os etrriv a/o-ros
5 Basil, in Psalm,
"E<rri fJLev TL Kal VOI]TOV arTOfia TOV CK TOV ovpuvov /Caracas.
evbov dvQptoTrov, to
Tpe<pTai /i6TX/x- xxxiii.
III.]
OF THE REAL PRESENCE. 43

(ver. 48), and, / am the living bread that came down from
heaven, (ver. 51); but addeth also, in the 55th verse, For
my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
Which words, being the most forcible of all the rest, and
those wherewith the simpler sort are commonly most deluded,

might carry some shew of proof that Christ's flesh and blood
should be turned into bread and wine, but have no manner
of colour to prove that bread and wine are turned into the
flesh and blood of Christ.
The truth of the second appeareth by the fourth verse,
in which we find that this fell out not long before the
Passover, and consequently a year at least before that last
Passover wherein our Saviour instituted the Sacrament of his
Supper. We willingly indeed do acknowledge, that that which
is
inwardly presented in the Lord's Supper, and spiritually
received by the soul of the faithful, is that very thing which
is treated of in the sixth of John ; but we deny, that it was
our Saviour's intention in this place to speak of that which is

externally delivered in the Sacrament, and orally received by


the communicant. And for our warrant herein, we need look
no further than to that earnest asseveration of our Saviour in
the 53d verse Verily, verily I say unto you, Except ye eat
:

the Jlesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no

life in you. Wherein there is not only an obligation laid


upon them for doing of this, (which in no likelihood could be
intended of the external eating of the Sacrament, that was not
as yet in being,) but also an absolute necessity imposed, non

prcecepti solum ratione, sed etiam medii. Now, to hold that


all they are excluded from life which have not had the means

to receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, is as untrue


as it is uncharitable. And therefore many of the Papists
themselves, as Biel, Cusanus, Cajetan, Tapper, Hessels,
Jansenius, and others confess, that our Saviour in the sixth
of John did not properly treat of the Sacrament.
The third of the points proposed may be collected out
of the first part of Christ's speech, in the 35th and 36th
verses: / am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall
never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never
thirst. But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me,
and believe not. But especially out of the last,from the
filst verse forward: When Jesus knew in himself that his
44 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this


offend you ? What then if you should see the Son of man
ascend up where he was before ? It is the spirit that

quickeneth ; the flesh proflteth nothing : the words that I


speak unto you, are spirit and life. But there are some
of you that believe not. Which words Athanasius (or who-
soever was the author of the tractate upon that place,
Quicunque dixerit verbum in fllium hominis) noteth our
Saviour to have used, that his hearers " 6 that
might learn,
those things which he spake were not carnal but spiritual.
For how many could his body have sufficed for meat, that
it should be made the food of the whole world? But
therefore it was that he made mention of the Son of man^s
ascension into heaven, that he might draw them from this

corporal conceit, and that hereafter they might learn that


the flesh which he spake of was celestial meat from above,
and spiritual nourishment to be given by him. For the
words which I have spoken unto you, saith he, are spirit
and life.'" So likewise Tertullian " 7
Although he saith :

that the flesh proflteth nothing, the meaning of the speech


must be directed according to the intent of the matter in
hand. For, because they thought it to be a hard and an
intolerable speech, as if he had determined that his flesh
should be truly eaten by them that he might dispose the ;

state of salvation by the spirit, he premised, It is the spirit


that quickeneth, and so subjoined, The flesh proflteth nothing,
namely, to quicken, &c.
8
And because the Word was made
flesh, it therefore was to be desired for causing of life, and
to be devoured by hearing, and to be chewed by under-

6
"OTI a Xeyei, OVK ecm trapKiKa, a'XXa edendam determinasset : ut in spiritu dis-

irvevfiaTiKd' Trotrois yap ijpKei TO <ru>p.a poneret statum salutis, praemisit ; Spiiitus
Kal TOV Koa-pov iravTO's
TT/OOS (3p<Jo(riv, 'iva
est qui vivificat, atque ita subjunxit caro :

TOVTO Tpo(prj yevt]Tai ; 'AXXa Sid TOVTO nihil prodest, ad vivificandum scilicet.
TIJS eis ovpavovs ccva/3d<rews efj.vr)/j.6vev(re Tertul. de Resurrect. Carnis, cap. 37.
8
TOV vlov TOV dvdpwTrov,'iva T?) o-ai/xaTtKtjs Quia et Sermo caro erat factus, proinde
ewotas auToue a^eXvuo-r;, Kal Xonrov Tt}v in causam vitae appetendus, et devorandus
ordpKa fipioffiv dvtoftev ovpdviov, auditu, et ruminandus intellectu, et fide
Kal TTvev/maTLK^v Tpotpriv Trap' avTov SL&O- j
digerendus. Nam
et paulo ante carnem

a ydp XeXaXtjKa (</>rj(rli/)


fjLevijv /uidQuHTiv.
i
suam panem quoque ccelestem pronuntia-

V/JLIV, TTvev/aa
eWi Kal o>t/. Athanas. | rat urgens usquequaque per allegoriam
;

7 Etsi cainem ait


nihil prodesse, ex ma- |
necessariorum pabulorum, memoriam pa-
teria dicti dirigendus est sensus. Nam quia |
trum, qui panes et carnes yEgyptiorum
durum et intolerabilem existimaverunt ser- praeverterant divinae vocationi. Idem
monem ejus, quasi vere carnem suam illis ibid.
OF THE REAL PRESENCE. 45
III.]

standing, and to be digested by


faith. For a little before
he had also affirmed that his flesh was heavenly bread, urging
allegory of necessary
food the remembrance of
still by the
the Fathers, who preferred the bread and the flesh of the
Egyptians before God's calling."
Add hereunto the sentence
of Origen: " There is in the New Testament also a letter
''

which killeth him that doth not spiritually conceive the


things that be spoken.
For if according to the letter you
do follow this same which is said, Except ye eat the flesh
of the Son of man, and drink his blood, this letter
killeth."

And those sayings which every where occur in St Augustine's


Tractates upon John: " How shall I send up my hand
10

unto heaven, to take hold on Christ sitting there? Send


of him." "
thy faith, and thou hast hold "Why preparest
thou thy teeth and thy belly ? Believe, and thou hast eaten."
" 12
For to eat the believe in him.
this is living bread, to
He that believeth in him, eateth. He is invisibly fed, be-
cause he is
invisibly regenerated. He is inwardly a babe,
inwardly renewed : where he is renewed, there is he
nourished."
The fourth proposition doth necessarily follow upon the
third. For if the eating and drinking here spoken of be
not an external eating and drinking, but an inward participa-
tion of Christ by the communion of his quickening Spirit,
it is evident that this blessing is to be found in the soul,

not only in the use of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper,


" It is no
but at other times also. ways to be doubted
1:i " that
by any one," saith Fulgentius, every one of the

9 novus intus
et in novo Testamento litera quae
Est est : ubi novellatur, ibi satia-
occiditeum, qui non spiritualiter ea quae tur. Id. ibid. Tract. 26.
13
dicuntur adverterit. Si enim secundum Nulli est aliquatenus ambigendum,
literam sequaris hoc ipsum quod dictum tune unumquemque fidelium corporis san-
est, Nisi manducaveritis carnem meam, guinisque Dominici participem fieri, quan-
et biberitis sanguinem meum, occidit haec do in Baptismate membrum Christi effici-
litera. Orig. in Levit. cap. 10. Horn. vn. tur ; nee alienari ab illius panis calicisque
10
Quomodo in ccelum manum mittam, consortio, etiamsi antequam panem ilium
ut ibi sedentem teneam ? Fidem mitte, et I

comedat, et calicem bibat, de hoc seculo in


tenuisti. Aug. Evang. Johan. Tract. 50.
in |
unitate corporis Christi constitutus absce-
11
Ut quid paras dentes et ventrem ? dat. Sacramenti quippe illius participa-

Crede, et manducasti. Id. ibid. Tract. 25. tione ac beneficio non privatur, quando
12
Credere enim in eum, hoc est mandu- ipse hoc quod illud Sacramentum signifi-
care panem vivum. Qui credit in eum, cat, invenitur. Fulgentius, in fine libelli
manducat. Invisibiliter saginatur, quia de Baptismo yEthiopis, Augustini nomine
inrisibiliter renascitur. Inf'ans intus est, citatus apud Bedam, in 1 Corinth, x.
ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

is made
faithful partaker of the body and blood of our
Lord, when he is made a member of Christ in baptism ;

and that he is not estranged from the communion of that


bread and cup, although before he eat that bread and drink
that cup he depart out of this world, being settled in the

unity of the body of Christ. For he is not deprived of the


participation and the benefit of that Sacrament, when he is
found to be that which Sacrament doth signify ." And
this

hereupon we see Fathers do apply the


that divers of the
sixth of John to the hearing of the word also, as u Clemens
15
Alexandrinus, Origen, Eusebius Caesareensis, and others.
" We are said to drink the blood of 16
Christ," saith Origen,
" not
only by way of the Sacraments, but also when we
receive his word, wherein consisteth life; even as he himself
'

saith The words which I have spoken are spirit and life.'
:
1 1

Upon which words of Christ Eusebius paraphraseth after


this manner: " 17 Do not think that I speak of that flesh
wherewith I am compassed, as if you must eat of that;
neither imagine that I command you to drink my sensible
and bodily but understand well, that the words
blood:
which I have spoken unto you are spirit and life* So that
those very words and speeches of his are his flesh and blood,
whereof who is partaker, being always therewith nourished
as it were with heavenly bread, shall likewise be made par-
taker of heavenly life. Therefore let not that offend you,
saith he, which I have spoken of the eating of my flesh and
of the drinking of my blood ; neither let the superficial
hearing of those things which were said by me of flesh and

14
Clem. Alexan. Paedagog. lib. i.
cap. 6. TI}V (ra/o/ca Kal TO alp.a' u>v o fJLeTe^wv del
15 uxravel apTco ovpavico Tpe<p6[j.evos, TT;S
Orig. in Levit. cap. 10. Horn. vn.
ovpaviov /j.ede^ei <O>TJS. Mr;5e ovv, (pr)(rl t
16
Bibere autem dicimur sanguinem
a-KavSaXi^eTU) u/ias TOVTO o irepl /3/owo-ews
Christi, non solum sacramentorum ritu, Tfjs e/xr/s cra/o/cos Kal Trepl Tro/xa-ros -row
sed et cum sermones ejus recipimus, in e/iou a'ifiaTO<i ei/otj/ca, p.n&e TapaTTCTto
quibus vita consistit, sicut et ipse dicit :
TWV
v/xas 7) 7rp6%eipos cc/corj irepl Ttjs crap-
Verba quae locutus sum, spiritus et vita KOS Kal a'Lp.aTO's ipr\p.eviov ttot. Tau-ra
est. Origen in Num. cap. 24. Horn. xvi. ~/dp ovcev (a<pe\el ctt(707jTtos a/couoitei/a, T
17
MT/ yap TI}V tra'/o/ca fjv TrepLKeifiai
^e TTvev/JLa eo-ri TO ^taoiroiovv TOUS Trvevfia-

i/o/u(njTe fj.e Xeyetv a5s Seov avTtjv ecrQieiv, Ttictos aKoveiv o^t/i/a/uei/ovs. Euseb. lib. iii.

fiySe TO al<r6t]Tov Kal crtap.aTiK.ov al/xa Ecclesiast. Theologias, cont. Marcell.


iriveiv inroXa/jL^dveTe lie TrpocrTaTTeiv' Ancyran. MS. in publica Oxoniensis
d\\' 6u ItTTe OTL TO. p^/uiaTa a \e\d\r)Ka Academiae Bibliotheca ; et in privatis
vfj.lv TrvevfJid ea-Ti Kal w?j. UHTTG aura virorum doctissimorum, D. Richardi
elvai TO. pq/JLaTa Kal TOUS \6yovs CLVTOV Montacutii et 31. Patricii Junii.
III.]
OK THE REAL PRESENCE. 4<7

blood trouble you. For these things, sensibly heard, profit


nothing; but the spirit
which quickeneth them thatis it

are able to hear spiritually.' Thus far Eusebius, whose 1 ''

words I have laid down the more largely, because they are
not vulgar.
There remaineth the fifth and last point, which is often-
times repeated by our Saviour in this sermon ; as in the
50th verse This is the bread which cometh down from
:

heaven, that a man may eat, thereof, avid not die ; and in
the 51st: If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for
ever; and in the 54th: Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood, hath eternal life ; and in the 56th : He that eateth

my flesh, and my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in


drinketh
him and in the 58th
; This is that bread which came down
:

from heaven : not as your fathers did eat manna, and are
dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
Whereupon Origen rightly observeth the difference that is
betwixt the eating of the typical or symbolical, (for so he
calleth the Sacrament,) and the true body of Christ. Of the
former thus he writeth " 18 That which is sanctified
:
by
the word of God and by prayer, doth not of its own nature

sanctify him that useth it. For if that were so, it would
sanctify him also which doth eat unworthy of the Lord ;
neither should any one for this eating be weak, or sick, or
dead. For such a thing doth Paul shew, when he saith,
For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and
" 19
many sleep" Of the latter, thus: Many things may be
spoken of the Word itself, which was made flesh, and true
meat ; which whosoever eateth shall certainly live for ever :

which no evil person can eat. For if it could be, that he


who continueth evil might eat the Word made flesh, (seeing
he is the Word and the bread of life,) it should not have

18 19
Quod sanctificatur per verbum Dei et Multa porro et de ipso Verbo dici
per obseciationem, non suapte natura sanc- possent, quod factum est caro, verusque
tificat utentem. Nam id si esset, sanctifi- cibus, quern qui comederit. omnino vivet
caret etiam ilium, qui comedit indigne in aeternum ; quein nullus malus potest
Domino :
neque quisquam ob hunc esum edere. Etenim si fieri possit, ut qui malus
infirmus aut aegrotus fuisset, aut obdor- adhuc perseveret, edat Verbum factum
misset. Nam tale quiddam Paulus de- carnem, quum sit Verbum et panis vivus,
monstrat, quum ait :
Propter hoc inter vos nequaquam scriptum fuisset: Quisquis
infirmi et male habentes, et dormiunt ederit panem hunc, vivet in aeternum.
j
'

multi. Origen in Mat. xv. Id. ibid.


48 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

been written : Whosoever eateth this bread shall live for ever"
The like difference doth St Augustine also, upon the same
ground, make betwixt the eating of Chrisfs body sacra-

mentally and really. For having affirmed that wicked men


" 20
may not be said to eat the body of Christ, because they
are not to be counted among the members of Christ ;" he
afterward addeth :
" 21
Christ himself saying, He that eateth
my Jlesh and drinketh my
remaineth in me, and I blood,
in him, sheweth what it is, not sacram en tally, but indeed,
to eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood; for this is
to remain in Christ, that Christ likewise may remain in him.
For he said this, as if he should have said, He that remaineth
not in me, and in whom I do not remain, let not him say
or think that he eateth my flesh or drinketh my blood."
And in expounding those words of Christ
another place,
here alleged, he thereupon inferreth thus: " 22 This is there-
fore to eat that meat and drink that drink; to remain in
Christ, and to have Christ remaining in him. And by this,
he that remaineth not in Christ, and in whom Christ abideth
not, without doubt doth neither spiritually eat his flesh nor
drink his blood; although he do carnally and visibly press
with his teeth the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ,
and so rather eateth and drinketh the Sacrament of so great
a thing for judgment to himself, because that, being unclean,
he did presume to come unto the Sacraments of Christ."
Hence it is that we find so often in him, and in other
of the Fathers, that the body and blood of Christ is com-
municated only unto those that shall live, and not unto those

30 Nee isti dicendi sunt manducare cor- meum, aut bibere sanguinem meum. Id.

pus Christi, quoniam nee in membris com- ibid.


22
putandi sunt Christi. August, de Civit. Hoc est ergo manducare illam escam,
Dei, lib. xxi. cap. 25. et ilium bibere potum ; in Christo manere,
21
Denique ipse dicens, Qui manducat
et ilium manentem in se habere. Ac per
carnem meam, et bibit sanguinem meum, hoc, qui non manet in Christo, et in quo
in me non manet Christus, proculdubio nee man-
manet, et ego in eo ; ostendit quid
sit non sacramento tenus, sed revera man- ducat spiritualiter carnem ejus, nee bibit
ducare corpus Christi, et ejus sanguinem ejus sanguinem, licet carnaliter et visibi-
bibere :hoc est enim in Christo manere, ut literpremat dentibus sacramentum corporis
in illo maneat et Christus. Sic enim hoc et sanguinis Christi sed magis tantae rei
:

sacramentum ad judicium sibi manducat


dixit,tanquam diceret Qui non in me :

et bibit, quia immundus praesumpsit ad


manet, et in quo ego non maneo, non se
dicat aut existimet manducare corpus Christi accedere sacramenta. Id. in Evan-
gel. Johan. Tract. 2fi.
I...]
OF I
1

UK KKAL rilESENCE. 1-9

that shall die for ever.


" 23
He is the bread of life. He
therefore that eateth life cannot die. For how should he
die whose meat is life? how should he fail who hath a vital
substance?" saith St Ambrose. a good note of And it is

Macarius, that as men use to give one kind of meat to their


servants and another to their children, so Christ, who
" created all things, nourisheth indeed evil and ungrateful
2>

persons; but the sons which he begat of his own seed, and
whom he made partakers of his grace, in whom the Lord
is formed, he nourisheth with a peculiar refection and food,
and meat and drink beyond other men; giving himself unto
them that have their conversation with his Father: as the
Lord himself saith : He
that eateth my flesh and drinketh

my blood, remaineth in me, and I in him, and shall not


see death" Among the sentences collected by Prosper out
of St Augustine, this also is one: " He receiveth the
25

meat of and drinketh the cup of eternity, who remaineth


life,
in Christ, and whose inhabiter is Christ. For he that is at
discord with Christ, doth neither eat his flesh nor drink
his blood; although judgment of his presumption he
to the

indifferently doth receive every day the sacrament of so great


11
a thing. Which distinction between the Sacrament and the
thing whereof it is a sacrament, (and consequently between
the sacramental and the real eating of the body of Christ,)
is thus
briefly and most excellently expressed by St Augustine
himself in his exposition upon the sixth of John: " The
26

sacrament of this thing is taken from the Lord's table; by

23
Hie est panis vitae. Qui ergo vitam QdvaTov ov pi) Beiaprjarei. Macar.
manducat, mori non potest. Quomodo Homil. xiv.
enim morietur, cui cibus vita est? quo- 25 Escam vitae et aeternitatis
accipit,
modo deficiet, qui habuerit vitalem sub- poculum bibit, qui in Christo
manet, et
stantiam ? Ambros. in Psal. cxviii. Octo- cujus Christus habitator est. Nam qui
nar. 18. discordat a Christo, nee carnem ejus man-
24
Hdvra airros e/CTi<re, /cat T/oe$ei TOUS ducat, nee sanguinem bibit ; etiamsi tantse
irovijpovs Kai a'xa/cuo-Toue, TCC Se TCKVO. a rei sacramentum ad judicium suae prae-
eyevvqaev e/c rov trrre/o/iaTos avTOu, Kai ols sumptionis quotidie indifferenter accipiat.
ev e/c TTJS yapiTO? avTov, ev ols Prosp. Sentent. 339.
26
6j 6 Ku/oios, IS lav dvaTravcriv Kai Hujus rei sacramentum, &c. de mensa
Kai (3pai<riv Kai Tcoaiv trapd TOUS Dominica sumitur ; quibusdam ad vitam,
XOITTOUS ai/6/otoTrous e/cTpe<et, Kai diSaxriv
quibusdam ad exitium res vero ipsa,:

eavrov aurots dvacrTpe<t>o/j.vois yueTa TOV cujus sacramentum est, omni homini ad
iraTpo's auToi/' cos (priaiv o K.U/OIOS, 'O Tpw- vitam, nulli ad exitium, quicunque ejus
ytov P.OV Tr\v <rdpKa, Kai TTIVWV /nou TO particeps fuerit. August, in Johan.
T/ua, cv Cjuol fJLcvei, Kayo) cv auTw, Kat Tract. 26.
D
50 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

some unto life, by some unto destruction but the thing :

whereof it is a sacrament, is received by every man


itself
unto life, and by none unto destruction, that is made par-
taker thereof." Our conclusion therefore is this:
The body and blood of Christ is received by all unto
and by none unto condemnation.
life,
But that substance which is outwardly delivered in the
Sacrament, is not received by all unto life, but by
many unto condemnation.
Therefore that substance which is
outwardly delivered
in the Sacrament, is not really the body and blood
of Christ.
The
first proposition is plainly proved by the texts
which have been alleged out of the sixth of John. The
second is manifest, both by common experience, and by the
testimony of the Apostle, 1 Cor. xi. 17, 27, 29. may We
therefore well conclude, that the sixth of John is so far
from giving any furtherance to the doctrine of the Romanists
in this point, that
it
utterly overthrow eth their fond opinion,
who imagine the body and blood of Christ to be in such
a sort present under the visible forms of bread and wine,
that whosoever receiveth the one, must of force also really
be made partaker of the other.
The like are we now to shew in the words of the
institution. For the better clearing whereof the reader may
be pleased to consider, first, that the words are not, This
shall be my body, nor, This is made, or, shall be changed
into my body ; but, This is my body. Secondly, that the
word this can have relation to no other substance but that
which was then present, when our Saviour spake that word;
which, as we shall make it plainly appear, was bread.
Thirdly, that it being proved that the word this doth
demonstrate the bread, it must of necessity follow, that
Christ affirming that to be his body, cannot be conceived
to have meant it so to be properly, but relatively and
sacramentally.
The first of these is
by both sides yielded unto; so
6(
likewise is the third. For this is
impossible," saith the
27 " that bread should be the
gloss upon Gratian, body of
27 Hoc tamen est impossibile, quod Dist. ii. cap. 55. Panis est in altari.

panis sit corpus Christ! . De Consecrat. Gloss.


III.]
OF THE REAL PRESENCE. 51

Christ." And " it cannot be," saith Cardinal


28
Bellarmine,
" that that
proposition should be true, the former part
whereof designeth bread, the latter the body of Christ;
forasmuch as bread and the Lord's body be things most
diverse." And therefore he confidently affirmeth, that " 29 if
the words, This is my body, did make this sense, This bread
is
my body, this sentence must either be taken tropically,
that bread may be the body of Christ significatively, or
else it is plainly absurd and impossible ; for it cannot be,"
saith he, " that bread should be the body of Christ." For
" 30
the nature of this verb substantive est, or is," saith
it is
" that as often as it
Salmeron, his fellow Jesuit, joineth
and coupleth together things of diverse natures, which by
the Latins are termed disparate there we must of necessity
run to a figure and trope;" and therefore " 31 should we
have been constrained to fly to a trope, if he had said,
This bread is my body, this wine is my blood; because
this had been a predication of disparates, as they call it."
32
Lastly, Doctor Kellison also in like manner doth freely
" If Christ had
acknowledge, that said, This bread is my

body, we must have understood him figuratively and meta-


phorically." So that the whole matter of difference resteth
now upon the second point, whether our Saviour, when he
said, This is my body, meant any thing to be his body
but that bread which was before him. matter which easily A
might be determined, in any indifferent man's judgment, by
the words immediately going before: He took bread, and
gave thanks, and brake, and gave it unto them, saying,
This is my body which is given for you; this do in
remembrance of me. Luke xxii. 19. For what did he
Quarto ducimus argument um a verbo
28
Non igitur potest fieri, ut vera sit
30

propositio, in qua subjectum supponit illo substantive est:


cujus ingenium et
pro pane, praedicatum autem pro corpore natura est, ut quoties res diversarum natu-
Christi. Panis enim et corpus Domini rarum, quae Latinis dicuntur disparata,
res diversissimffi sunt. Bellarmin. de unit et copulat, ibi necessario ad figuram
Eucharist, lib. iii.
cap. 19. et tropum accurramus. Alphons. Salme-
29
Ibidem scripsit Lutherus, verba Evan- ron. Tom. ix. Tractat. 20.
81
gelist, Hoc est corpus meum, hunc facere Cogeremur ad tropum confugere, si
sensum, Hie panis est corpus meum quae :
nempe, Hie panis est cor-
aliter dixisset,
sententia aut accipi debet tropice, ut panis pus meum, Hoc vinum est sanguis meus ;
sit corpus Christi significative; aut est quia esset praedicatio disparatorum, ut
plane absurda et impossibilis ; nee enim vocant. Id. ib.
32 Matth.
fieri potest, ut panis sit corpus Christi. Kellison, Survey of the new
Id. lib. i. de Eucharist, cap. 1. Religion, lib. viii. cap. 7- sect. 7.
1)2
52 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

demonstrate here, and said was his body, but that which
he gave unto his disciples? What did he give unto them,
but what he brake ? What brake he, but what he took ?
and doth not the text expressly say, that he took bread?
Was it not therefore of the bread he said, This is my
body ? And could bread possibly be otherwise understood to
have been his body, but as a sacrament, and (as he himself
with the same breath declared his own meaning) a memorial
thereof?
If these words be not of themselves clear enough, but
have need of further exposition, can we look for a better
than that which St Paul giveth of them, ] Cor. x. 16:
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the
body of Christ? Did not St Paul therefore so understand
Christ, as if he had said, This bread is my body? And
if Christ had said so, doth not Kellison confess, and
right
reason evince, that he must have been understood figura-

tively ? considering that it is simply impossible that bread


should really be the body of Christ. If it be said, that
St Paul by bread doth not here understand that which is
properly bread, but that which lately was bread, but now
is become the
body of Christ, we must remember, that
St Paul doth not only say, The bread, but, The bread which
we break; which breaking, being an accident properly be-
longing to the bread itself, and not to the body of Christ,
(which, being in glory, cannot be subject to any more
breaking,) doth evidently shew, that the Apostle by bread
understandeth bread indeed. Neither can the Romanists
well deny this, unless they will deny themselves, and confess
that they did but dream all this while they have imagined
that the change of the bread into the body of Christ is
made by virtue of the sacramental words alone, which have
not their effect until they have all been fully uttered. For
the pronoun this, which is the first of these words, doth

point to something which was then present. But no sub-


stance was then present but bread; seeing, by their own

grounds, the body of Christ cometh not in until the last


word of that sentence, yea, and the last syllable of that
word, be completely pronounced. What other substance,
therefore, can they make this to signify, but this bread
?
only
III.]
OF THE REAL PRESENCE. 53-

In the institution of the other part of the Sacrament


the words are yet more plain, Matth. xxvi. 27, 28 He took :

the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,


Drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the new
Testament; or, as St Paul and St Luke relate
it, This
cup is the new Testament in my blood. That which he
bid them all drink of is that which he said was his blood.
But our Saviour could mean nothing but the wine when he
said, Drink ye all of it ; because this sentence was uttered

by him before the words of consecration, at which time our


adversaries themselves do confess that there was nothing in
the cup but wine, or wine and water at the most. It was

wine, therefore, which he said was his blood, even the fruit
of the vine, as he himself termeth it. For as in the delivery
of the other cup before the institution of the Sacrament,
St Luke, who
alone maketh mention of that part of the

history, us that he said unto his disciples,


telleth / will ffl

not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of


God shall come ; so doth St Matthew and St Mark like-
wise testify, that at the delivery of the sacramental cup,
when he had said, This is my blood of the new Testament,
which shed for many for the remission of sins, he also
is

added, But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth


of this fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it
new with you in my Fathers kingdom. Now, seeing it is
contrary both to sense and faith, that wine, or the fruit of
the vine, should really be the blood of Christ, (there being
that formal difference in the nature of the things, that there
is an utter impossibility that in true propriety of speech
the one should be the other,) nothing in this world is more

plain than, when our Saviour


said it was his blood, he could
not mean be so substantially, but sacramentally.
it to
And what other interpretation can the Romanists them-
selves give of those words of the institution in St Paul:
This cup is the new Testament in my blood? How is
the cup, or the thing contained in the cup, the new Testa-
ment, otherwise than as a Sacrament of it? Mark how in
the like case the Lord himself, at the institution of the
first Sacrament of the old Testament, useth the same manner
33 35
Luke xxii. 18. I TOUTO TO iroT^ptov j MZII/,J Aia0i|jrt|.
34
Matth. xxvi. 29 ; Mar. xiv. 25. I torti/ ev TW e/uw at/uort. 1 Cor. xi. 25.
54 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

36
of speech, Gen.
This is my Covenant or Testa-
xvii. 10 :

ment, for the Greek word in both places is the same; and
in the words presently following thus expoundeth his own
37
meaning: It shall be a SIGN of the Covenant betwixt me
and you. And generally for all sacraments the rule is
thus laid down by St Augustine, in his Epistle to Bonifacius :

" ^If sacraments did not some manner of way resemble the

things whereof they are sacraments, they should not be


sacraments at all. And for this resemblance they do often-
times also bear the names of the things themselves. As
therefore Sacrament of the body of Christ is after a
the
certain manner the body of Christ, and the Sacrament of
Christ's blood is the blood of Christ, so likewise the Sacra-
ment of faith is faith." By the Sacrament of faith he
understandeth baptism, of which he afterward allegeth that
saying of the Apostle, 4: We are buried with Rom. vi.

Christ by baptism into and then addeth " 39 He


death; :

saith not, We signify his burial, but he plainly saith, We


are buried. Therefore the Sacrament of so great a thing
he would not otherwise call but by the name of the thing
itself. And in his Questions upon Leviticus: " 40 The thing
1'

that signifieth," saith he, " useth to be called by the name


of that thing which it signifieth; as it is written, The seven
ears of corn are seven years, (for he said not, They signify
seven years,) and the seven kine are seven years; and many
such like. Hence was that saying, The rock was Christ.
For he said not, The rock did signify Christ; but as if

36
Kat auTTj rj ta6rj/oj rjv sed prorsus ait, Consepulti sumus. Sacra-
dvd fieoov efiou /cat u/zwi/. Gen. xvii. mentum ergo tantae rei non nisi ejusdem
10. rei vocabulo nuncupavit. Id. ibid.
37 40 Solet autem res quaa significat, ejus
Kat e<rrat ev crrj/Jieita (vel eis orrj/uetoi/)

<5ta6tj/ct]S dvd ^ueo-oi/ e/uoC /cat vfiuiv.


Gen. rei nomine quam significat nuncupari, sicut
xvii. 11. scriptum est : Septem spicae septem anni
38
Si enim sacramenta
quandam simili- sunt (non enim dixit, Septem annos signi-
tudinem earum rerum quarum sacramenta ficant), et septem boves septem anni sunt
:

sunt non haberent, omnino sacramenta non et multa hujusmodi. Hinc est quod dic-
essent. Ex hac autem similitudine ple- tum est : Petra erat Christus. Non enim
rumque etiam ipsarum rerum nomina ac- dixit, Petra significat Christum ; sed tan-
cipiunt. Sicut ergo secundum quendam quam hoc esset, quod utique per substan-
modum sacramentum corporis Christi cor- tiam non hoc erat, sed per significationem.
pus Christi est, sacramentum sanguinis Sic et sanguis, quoniam propter vitalem
Christi sanguis Christi est ; ita sacramen- quandam corpulentiam animam significat,
tum fidei fides est. Aug. Ep. 23. in sacramentis anima dictus est. Aug. in
39 Non ait, Sepulturam significamus : Lev. Qu. 57-
III.]
OF THE REAL PRESENCE. 55

it had been that very thing, which doubtless by substance


it was not, but by signification. So also the blood, because
for a certain vital corpulency which it hath it signifieth
the soul, after the manner of sacraments it is called the soul."
Our argument therefore out of the words of the institution
standeth thus:
If itbe true that Christ called bread his body and wine
his blood, then must it be true also, that the things
which he honoured with those names cannot be really
his body and blood, but figuratively and sacramentally.
But the former is true therefore also the latter.
;

The first proposition hath been proved by the undoubted


principles of right reason, and the clear confession of the
adverse part ; the second by the circumstances of the text
of the Evangelists, by the exposition of St Paul, and by
the received Romanists themselves.
grounds of the The
conclusion therefore resteth firm
; and so we have made it
clear, that the words of the institution do not only not

uphold, but directly also overthrow, the whole frame of


that which the Church of Rome teacheth touching the

corporal presence of Christ under the forms of bread and


wine.
If I should now lay down here all the sentences of the
Fathers which teach that that which Christ called his body
is bread in substance, and the body of the Lord in signifi-
cation and sacramental relation, I should never make an end.
Justin Martyr, in his Apology to Antoninus the Emperor,
telleth us that the bread and the wine, even that
" 41 sancti-
fied food wherewith our blood and flesh by conversion are
" we are
nourished," is that which taught to be the flesh
and blood of Jesus incarnate." Irenaeus, in his 4th book
" 42
against Heresies, saith that our Lord, taking bread of
that condition which is usual among us, confessed it to be
his ;" and " 43
the " that
body cup" likewise, containing

quae estsecundum nos, accipiens panem,


Kal <ra/3KS Kara /x6Ta/3oXjj/ Tpetyoirrai suum corpus esse confitebatur ; et tempe-
yfjidov, e/ceit/ou TOV (rapKO7roiT)QevTOS 'Iqcrov ramentum calicis suum sanguinem con-
Kal ffdpKa Kal alfj.a ediSd^Q^fiev eli/ai- firmavit. Iren. lib. iv. cap. 57.
Just. Apolog. II. 43
Calicem, qui est ex ea creatura quac
42
Quomodo autem juste Dominus, si est secundum nos, suum sanguinem con-
alterius pafc-is existit, hujus conditionis, fessus est. Id. lib. iv. cap. 32.
56 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

creature which is usual among us, his blood." And in his


5th book he addeth: " "That cup which is a creature,
he confirmed to be his blood which was shed, whereby he
increaseth our blood; and that bread which is of the crea-
ture, to be his body, whereby he increaseth our bodies.
Therefore when the mixed cup and the broken bread doth
receive the word of God, it is made the Eucharist of the
blood and body of Christ, whereby the substance of our flesh
is increased and doth consist." Our Lord, saith Clemens
" 45 did bless when he said, Take, drink,
Alexandrinus, wine,
46
this is my Tertullian
blood, the blood of the vine"
Christ, :

"
taking bread, and distributing to his disciples, made it it

his body, saying, This is my body; that is, the figure of


" 47 That meat which is
my body." Origen: sanctified by
the word of God and by prayer, as touching the material

part thereof, goeth into the belly, and isvoided into the
draught; but as touching the prayer which is added,
according to the proportion of faith it is made profitable,
enlightening the mind, and making it to behold that which
is
profitable. Neither is it the matter of bread, but the
word spoken over it, which profiteth him that doth not
unworthily eat thereof. And these things I speak of the
typical and symbolical body," saith Origen. In the Dialogues
against the Marcionites, collected for the most part out of
the writings of Maximus, who lived in the time of the

Emperors Commodus and Severus, Origen, who is made the


chief speaker therein, is
brought in thus disputing against

Eum calicem suum corpus meum dicendo, id est, figura cor-


44
qui est creatura,
sanguinem qui effusus est, ex quo auget poris mei. Tertul. advers. Marcion. lib. iv.
nostrum sanguinem; et eum panem qui cap. 40.
est suum corpus confirmavit, ex
a creatura, 47 Ille
cibus, qui sanctificatur per ver-
quo nostra auget corpora. Quando ergo et bum Dei perque obsecrationem, juxta id
mixtus calix et fractus panis percipit ver-
quod habet materiale, in ventrem abit, et
bum Dei, fit Eucharistia sanguinis et cor- in secessum ejicitur ceterum juxta pre-
:

poris Christi, ex quibus augetur et consistit cationem quae illi accessit, proportione fidei
carnis nostrae substantia. Id. lib. v. cap. 2. fit utilis, efficiens ut perspicax fiat animus,

edit. Colon, ann. 1596. spectans ad id quod utile est. Nee materia
45 -ev ye TOV oivov, eiir(av, panis, sed super ilium dictus sermo est, qui
'
TOVTO /JLOV earri TO al/ma, non indigne Domino comedenti
prodest
Clem. Alex. Paedag. ilium. Et haec quidem de typico sym-
lib. ii. cap. 2. in Matth.
bolicoque corpore. Origen.
46
Acceptum panem et distributum dis- cap. xv.
cipulis, corpus suum ilium fecit, Hoc est
III.]
OF THE REAL PRESENCE.

the heretics: "


If Christ, as these men say, were without
18

body and blood, of what kind of flesh, or of what body,


or of what kind of blood, did he give the bread and the

cup to be images of, when he commanded his disciples by


them to make a commemoration of him?" St Cyprian also
noteth,
49
that it was wine, even the fruit of the vine, which
the Lord said was his blood; and that " 50
flour alone, or
water alone, cannot be the body of our Lord, unless both
be united and coupled together, and kneaded into the lump
that "
11 51
of one bread. And the Lord calle th bread
again, (

his body, which is made up by the uniting of many corns ;"


and " wine his blood, which is pressed out of many clusters
of grapes, and gathered into one" liquor. Which I find
also word for word in a manner transcribed in the Com-
52
mentaries upon the Gospels, attributed unto Theophilus,
Bishop of Antioch; whereby it appeareth, that in those
elder times the words of the institution were no otherwise
conceived than as if Christ had plainly said, This bread
is
my body, and, This wine
blood; which is the is
my
main thing that we strive for with our adversaries, and for
which the words themselves are plain enough ; the substance
whereof we find thus laid down in the Harmony of the

Gospels, gathered, as some say, by Tatianus, as others, by


Ammonius, within the second or the third age after Christ:
" 53
Having taken the bread, then afterward the cup of wine,
and testified it to be his body and blood, he commanded
them to eat and drink thereof, forasmuch as it was the
memorial of his future passion and death."

48
El &, OVTOL <t>aaiv, darapicos icai natione populum nostrum,
congestum,
dvai/j.0? TJI/, TTOUIS <ra/o/cos, r; TIJ/OS orwfta- quern portabat, adunatum
indicat et :

TOS, rj TToiov aifiaTos ei/coi/as oioous dpTov quando sanguinem suum vinum appellat,
T6 Kal TTOTTIplOV, eVT\XeTO TOIS fiadtj-
de botris atque acinis plurimis expressum
TCUS <5ia TOVTtav TTJV dvd/j.vt]<riv avTov atque in unum coactum, gregem item nos-
iroielaOat ; Orig. Dial. ill. trum significat, commixtione adunataemul-
49
Qua in parte invenimus calicem titudinis copulatum. Id. Epist. LXXVI.
mixtum fuisse quern Dominus obtulit, et sect. 4.
vinum fuisse quod sanguinem suum dixit. 52
Theoph. Antioch. inEvan.lib. i. p. 152.
Cypri. Epist. LXIII. sect. 6. Tom. ii. Bibliothec. Patr. edit. Colon.
50
Nee corpus Domini potest esse farina 53
Mox accepto pane, deinde vini calice,
sola, aut aqua sola ; nisi utrumque aduna- corpus esse suum ac sanguinem testatus,
tum fuerit et copulatum, et panis unius manducare illos jussit et bibere ; quod ea
compage solidatum. Id. ibid. sect. 10. sit futurae calamitatis suse mortisque me-
51
Nam quando Dominus corpus suum moria. Ammon. Harmon. Evang. Tom.
panem vocat de multomm granorum adu- in. Biblioth. Patr. p. 28.
58 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

To the Fathers of the first three hundred years we


will now adjoin the testimonies of those that flourished in
the ages following. The first whereof shall be Eusebius,
who saith that our Saviour " w delivered to his
disciples the
symbols of his divine dispensation, commanding them to
make the image of his own body;" and " 55 appointing them
to use bread for the
symbol of his body;" and that we
" M celebrate
still
upon the Lord's table the memory of his
sacrifice by the symbols of his body and blood, according
to the ordinances of the New Testament."" Acacius, who
succeeded him in his bishopric, saith that " 57 the bread and
wine sanctifieth them that feed upon that matter;" acknow-
ledging thereby that the material part of those outward
elements do remain. " In the saith
still Church," ^Macarius,
" is offered bread and wine, the type of his flesh and blood ;
and they which are partakers of the visible bread do spirit-
59
ually eat the flesh of the Lord." Christ, saith St Jerome,
" did not but wine, for the type of his blood."
offer water,
St Augustine bringeth in our Saviour thus speaking of this
matter " 60 You shall not eat this
:
body which you see, nor
drink that blood which they shall shed that will crucify
me. I have commended a
certain Sacrament unto you, that

being spiritually understood will quicken you." The same


Father in another place writeth, that 61 Christ admitted Judas
to " that banquet wherein he commended and delivered unto
his disciples the figure of his body and blood;" but, as he

64
Ta (TVfjipoXa. TJJS evOeov ol/coi/o/nias KCti oIj/O5, dvTLTVTrOV TJJs (Ttt/O/COS O.VTOV KUL
TO?? O.VTOV irapeoidov /u.ct0tjTaTs, TrjV eiKova TOV a'ifJLaTOS' KOL ol [jLGTa\afji(3dvoitTs e/c

TOV iciov cru>u.aTO<3 Troieurflai 7ra/oa/ceXeuo- TOV dpTOv TrvevfiaTiKtas TI]V


(fiaivo/JLevov

/nei/os. Euseb.lib. viii. Demonst. Evang. a-dpKa TOV Kvpiov ecr0toi;<ri. Macar.
in fine cap. 1. ^Egypt. Homil. xxvu.
69
55
"ApTco &e -xf^ffdat <rvu.(36\u> T In typo sanguinis sui non obtulit

(TWjuctTos TTapeclSov. Id. ibid. aquam, sed vinum. Hieronym. lib. ii.

56 advers. Jovinian.
TOUTOU 6tJTCt TOV 0U/iCCTOS Tt]V
7Tt T/oaireJtjs eKTeXelv, Sid
60 Non hoc corpus quod videtis mandu-
TOV T ttVTOV KCLl TOV G<aT1\p'lOV caturi estis, et bibituri ilium sanguinem,
arWfJLClTOS

aiyuecTos, KO.TO. 6eoyxoi;s 7-775 Kaivfjs ^laOjjfcrjs quern fusuri sunt qui me crucifigent.
Id. lib. i. Demonstr. cap. Sacramentum aliquod vobis commendavi :

ult. spiritualiter intellectum vivificabit vos.


57Panis vinumque ex hac materia ves- Augustin. in Psal. xcviii.
61
centes sanctificat.Acac. in Gen. ii. Graec. Adhibuit ad convivium, in quo cor-
Caten. in Pentateuch. Zephyro interp. poris et sanguinis sui figuram discipulis
8
'Ei/ TTJ KK\ri<ria trpoarQepeTai apTOf commendavit et tradidit. Id. in Psal. iii.
OF THE EEAL PRESENCE. 59

elsewhere
62 " did eat that bread which was
addeth, they
the Lord himself; he the bread of the Lord against the
"The " 63 did not doubt
Lord." Lastly: Lord," saith he,
to say, This is my body, when he gave the sign of his

body/'
So the author of the homily upon the 22d Psalm, among
the works of Chrysostom
" 64 This table he hath:
prepared
for his servants and handmaids in their sight, that he might

every day, for a similitude of the body and blood


of Christ,
shew unto us in a sacrament bread and wine after the
order of Melchisedec." And St Chrysostom himself, in his
Epistle written to Ca3sarius against the heresy of Apollinarius :
" 65 before the bread be sanctified, we call it bread, but
As,
when God's hath sanctified it by the means of the
grace
priest, it is delivered
from the name of bread, and is
reputed
worthy the name of the Lord's body, although the nature
of the bread remain still in it; and it is not called two
bodies, but one body of God's Son : so likewise here, the divine
nature residing in the body of Christ, these two make one
Son and one person." In the selfsame manner also do
Theodoret, Gelasius, and Ephraemius proceed against the
Eutychian heretics. Theodoret, for his part, layeth down
these grounds: That our Saviour, " 66 in the delivery of
the mysteries, called bread his body, and that which was
mixed" in the cup
" his blood :" that
67
he " changed the
names, and gave to the body the name of the symbol" or

63 Illi manducabant panem Dominum : ris appellatione, etiamsi natura panis in


ille panem Domini contra Dominum. ipso permansit; et non duo corpora, sed
Id. in Evang. Johan. Tract. LIX. unum Filii corpus praedicatur : sic et hie,
63
Non enim Dominus dubitavit dicere, divina inundante corporis natura (vel po-
Hoc est corpus meum, cum signum daret tius, divina natura in corpore insidente:

corporis sui. Aug. contr. Adimant. cap. Greece enim ez/ifyuo-aVtjs hie legitur in
12. MS. Bibliothecae Florentine exemplari,
64
Istam mensam praeparavit servis et unde ista transtulit Petrus Martyr) unum
ancillis in conspectu eorum, ut quotidie, filium, unam personam, utraque haec f&-
in similitudinem corporis et sanguinis cerunt. Chrysost. ad Caesarium mona-
Christi, panem et vinum secundum ordi- chum.
nem Melchisedec nobis ostenderet in 16
ye TU>V fivtrrtjpiajv irapadoa-ei
'Ej; oe

sacramento. In Psal. xxii. Chrysost. TOV apTov Ka.\(re, Kal alfia TO


<ru>fj.a

Tom. i. Kpapa. Theod. Dialog. I. "AT/OCTI-TOS,


65
Sicut enim, antequam sanctificetur fol. 8. edit. Rom. ann. 1547-
67
'O 6e ye trwTt/p 6 tj/xeTe/oos evtJXXae
panis, panem nominamus ; divina ilium
sanctificante gratia, mediante sacerdote, TO. ovo/JLora' Kal TW fj.ev crtofiaTi TO TOV

liberatus est quidem ab appellatione panis, crvfjif36\ov TfQeiKfV ovofia, TW $e <ri;/ii/3o\a

dignus autem habitus est Dominici corpo- TO TOV <ra>/naTo?. Ib.


60 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [cHAP.

" and to the


sign, symbol the name of the body :" that he
" 68
honoured the visible symbols with the name of his body
and blood not changing the nature, but adding grace to
;

nature:" and that " 69 this most holy food is a symbol and
type of those things whose names it beareth," to wit,
" of the
body and blood of Christ." Gelasius writeth thus :

" 70 The Sacraments which we receive of the


body and blood
of Christ are a divine thing, by means whereof we are
made partakers of the divine nature; and yet the substance
or nature of bread and wine doth not cease to be. And
indeed the image and the similitude of the body and blood
of Christ are celebrated in the action of the mysteries. It

appeareth, therefore, evidently enough unto us, that we are


to hold the same opinion of the Lord Christ himself which
we profess, celebrate, and are, in his image; that as" those
" the of the into
Sacraments, by operation holy Spirit, pass
this, that is, into the divine substance, and yet remain in
the propriety of their own nature; so that principal mystery
itself, whose force and virtue they truly represent," should
be conceived to be, namely, to consist of two natures,
divine and human; the one not abolishing the truth of the
other. Lastly, Ephrsemius, the Patriarch of Antioch, having
spoken of the distinction of these two natures in Christ, and
" 71 no man
said, that having understanding could say, that
there was the same nature of that which could be handled,

68 Tct
bpuifieva <rv|U/3oXa Ty TOV sic illud ipsum mysterium principale,
TOI Kal aV/iaTos Trpoa-ijyopia cujus nobis efficientiam virtutemque vera-
ov Tt}V (frva-iv fJLerafta\(aVj aXXa rrji/ \dpiv citer repraesentant, &c. Gelas. de Duab.
Trj <f)varei irpoffreQeiKws. Ibid. Natur. in Christo, contra Eutychen.
69 71 AXX'
2v/i|8oXoi/ -re Kal TVTTOV cKeivcov, tav ovSels av e'nrelv SvvaTai vovv
Kal Tas TTpoariyopias edeavro. Ibid. 73 auTtj <pvcri<i \|/?]Xa^)tjTou Kal
70 Certa sacramenta quae sumimus cor- Kal opaTov Kal dopaTov.

poris et sanguinis Christi, divina res est, OU'TWS Kal TO irapd TWV TTLvrHov \a[if$av6-

propter quod et per eadem divinse effici- fj.vov artofia X/oitrTou, Kal T^S ai<r6j)T^s
mur consortes naturae et tamen esse non
: ouo-ias OVK e^LGTarai (Schottus the Jesuit
desinit substantia vel natura panis et vini. translateth this, et sensibilis essentice non
Et certe imago et similitudo corporis et cognoscitur, which is a strange interpreta-

sanguinis Christi in actione mysteriorum tion, if you mark it) Kal T^S I/OTJTT/S d&iai-
celebrantur. Satis ergo nobis evidenter perov fievei yapi'Tos' Kal TO /SaVrto-yua tie

ostenditur, hoc nobis in ipso Christo Do- TrvevfJLaTiKdv o'Xoy yevofievov, Kal ev virdp-
mino sentiendum, quod in ejus imagine ypv, Kal TO Lotov TTJS aicrflrjTT/ff ovoiay t TOV
v5aTO<s Xe'yto, diaffca^et, Kal o yeyovev OVK
profitemur, celebramus, et sumus : ut sicut
hi hanc, scilicet in divinam, transeant,sanc- dirtoXea-ev. Ephrasmius de Sacris Antio-
to Spiritu perficiente, substandard, perma- chiae Legib. lib. i. in Photii Bibliotheca,

nentes tamen in suae proprietate naturae ; Cod. 229.


III.]
OF THE REAL PRESENCE. 61

and of that which could not be handled, of that which was


" And
visible, and of that which was invisible ;" addeth,
even thus the body of Christ which is received by the
" doth neither
faithful," (the Sacrament he meaneth,) depart
from its sensible substance, and yet remaineth undivided
from intelligible grace; and baptism, being wholly made
spiritual,
and remaining one, doth both retain the property
of its sensible substance, (of water, I mean,) and yet loseth
not that which it is made."
Thus have we produced evidences of all sorts, for con-
firmation of the doctrine by us professed touching the blessed
Sacrament, which cannot but give sufficient satisfaction to
all that with any indifferency will take the matter into their
consideration. But the men with whom we have to deal are
so far fallen out with the truth, that neither sense nor
reason, authority of Scriptures or of Fathers, can
neither

persuade them to be friends again with it ; unless we shew


unto them in what Pope^s days the contrary falsehood was
first devised. If nothing else will give them content, we
must put them in mind, that about the time wherein Soter
was Bishop of Rome, there lived a cozening companion,
called Marcus, whose qualities are thus set out by an ancient
72
Christian, who was famous in those days, though now his
name be unknown unto us:

MdpK 9 Kal

KCU

At* tav
KpctTvveis TJs ir\dvris TO.

rots VTTO aou

'A ffol
"xopriyel cros TraTfjp Sarai; ael
At* dyyeXiKqs Suva/mews !Aai}\ Troteiv,

"E^ow ere
irpoSpo/uiov dvTiOeov Travovpylas.

Where, first, he chargeth him to have been an idol-


maker; then he objecteth unto him his skill in astrology
and magic, by means whereof, and by the assistance of
Satan, he laboured with a shew of miracles to win credit
unto his false doctrines amongst his seduced disciples; and

72
Vet. auctor citatus ab Irenaeo, lib. i.
cap. 12.
62 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

lastly, he concludeth that his father the devil had employed


him as a forerunner of his antithean craft, or his antichristian
deceivableness of unrighteousness, if you will have it in the
Apostle's language. For he was indeed the devil's fore-
runner, both for the ^idolatries and sorceries which afterward
were brought into the East, and for those 74 Romish fornica-
tions and enchantments wherewith the whole West was

corrupted by that man of sin, 'whose coming was foretold


75

to be after the working of Satan, with all power, and

signs, and lying wonders. And that we may keep ourselves


within the compass of that particular which now we have
in hand, we find in Irenaeus that this arch-heretic made
special use of his juggling feats to breed a persuasion in
the minds of those whom
he had perverted, that in the
cup of his pretended Eucharist he really delivered them
blood to drink. For " 76 himself to consecrate the
feigning
cups with wine, and extending the words of invoca-
filled

tion to a great length, he made them to appear of a purple


and red colour, to the end it might be thought that the
grace which is above things did distil the blood thereof
all

into that cup by his invocation." And even according to


this precedent we find it fell -out afterwards, that the prin-

cipal and most powerful means whereby


the like gross conceit
of the guttural eating and drinking of the body and blood
of Christ was at the first fastened upon the multitude, and
in process of time more deeply rooted in them, were such
delusions and feigned apparitions as these; which yet that

great schoolman himself, Alexander of Hales, confesseth to


" 77 the
happen sometimes, either by procurement of man,"
or by " the operation of the devil." Paschasius Radbertus,
who was one of the first setters forward of this doctrine in

the West, spendeth a large chapter upon this point, wherein


he telleth us, 78 that Christ in the Sacrament did shew him-
73 77 Humana
Apoc. ix. 20, 21. procuratione, vel forte dia-
74 xviii. 3, 23. bolica operatione. Alex. Halens. Summ.
Apoc.
75 2 Thess. ii. 9. Theolog. Part. iv. Quaest. xi. Memb. 2.
76 Art. 4. Sect. 3.
noTTj'/ua olvta KCKpa/Jieva irpotriroiov-
juevos eu^apL<TTelv , KOL eiri irXeoi/ eKreivcov
78 Nemo qui sanctorum vitas et exempla
TOV \6yov Trj<3 e7ri/cX?]'o-ea>s, irop(pvpea KO.I legerit, potest ignorare, quod saepe haec
epvQpd dva.<pa.iv6(rf)a.i Trdiei' cos 8oKelv TTJV mystica corporis et sanguinis sacramenta,
enro TU>V virep TO. oXa ^dpiv TO ai/j.a
TO aut propter dubios, aut certe propter ar-
O.VTT)<S <rrae/ ev TU> eKeivca iroTripitt) did dentius amantes Christum, visibili specie
Ttjs e7rtK\7(rews au-rou. Iren. lib. i.
cap. 9. in agni forma, aut in carnis et sanguinis
III.]
OF THE REAL PRESENCE. 63

self u oftentimes in a visible shape, either in the form of a


lamb, or in the colour of flesh and blood, so that while
the was a breaking or an offering, a lamb in the
host

priest's hands, and blood in the chalice should be seen as


it were
flowing from the sacrifice, that what lay hid in a
mystery might to them that yet doubted be made manifest
in a miracle." And specially in that place he insisteth upon
a narration which he found in gestis Anglorum, (but de-
served well to have been put into gesta Romanorum for
the goodness of it,) of one Plecgils or Plegilus, a priest,
how an angel shewed Christ unto him in the form of a
child upon the altar, whom first he took into his arms and

kissed, but ate him up afterwards, when he was returned


to his former shape
again. Whereof arose that jest which
was wont to use: " 79 This was a
Berengarius proper piece
of the knave indeed, that whom he had kissed with his
mouth he would devour with his teeth."
But
there are three other tales of singular note, which,

though they may justly strive for winning of the whetstone


with any other, yet for their antiquity have gained credit
above the rest, being devised, as it seemeth, much about
the same time but having
with that other of Plegilus,
relation unto higher was
times. had The
out of the first
80
English legends too, as Johannes Diaconus reporteth it in
the life of
Gregory the First, of a Roman matron, who
found a piece of the sacramental bread turned into the
fashion of a finger, all
bloody; which afterwards, upon the
prayers of St Gregory, was converted to its former shape
again. The other two were first coined by the Grecian
liars, and from them conveyed unto the Latins, and regis-
tered in the book which they called Vitas Patrum, which
being
81
commonly believed to have been collected by St Jerome,
and accustomed to be read ordinarily in every monastery,
colore monstrata sint; quatenus de se oris praebuerat basium, dentium inferret
Christus clementer adhuc non credentibus exitium. Gulielm. Malmsbur. de Gestis
fidem faceret ita ut dum oblata frangitur
:
Reg. Anglor. lib. iii.
vel offertur videretur Johan. Diac. Vit.
hostia, agnus in Greg. lib. ii.

manibus, et cruor in calice, quasi ex cap. 41.


immolatione profluere ; ut quod latebat in 81
Sanctus Hieronymus presbyter ipsas
mysterio, patesceret adhuc dubitantibus in Sanctorum Patrum Vitas Latino edidit
miraculo. Paschas. de Corp. et Sang. sermone. Paschas. Radbert. in Epist. ad
Dom. cap. 14. Frudegard. Consule libros Carolines, de
79
Speciosa certe pax nebulonis ; ut cui Imaginib. lib. iv. cap. 11.
64 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

gave occasion of further spread, and made much way for


the progress of this mystery of iniquity. The former of
these is not only related 82 there, but also in the legend of
Simeon Metaphrastes, (which is such another author among
the Grecians as Jacobus de Voragine was among the Latins,)
83
in life of Arsenius, how that a little child was seen
the

upon the altar, and an angel cutting him into small pieces
with a knife, and receiving his blood into the chalice, as
long as the priest was breaking the bread into little parts.
The latter is of a certain Jew, receiving the Sacrament at
St Basil's hands, converted visibly into true flesh and blood,
which is
expressed by Cyrus Theodorus Prodromus in this
tetrastich :

X|OicrTtai'ft>i>
TTore irai^e 6vr)7rd\irjv "ep 1109,

'AjOToi/ T elaopowv, KCII aiOoTra KCIVW eir olvov*

Toi> &' ws ovv ev6rj<re Ba<n\6/oi/ iceap ayvov,

Hopcrvvev ol (fiayeetv, ra o ejrl


Kpeas aljma T dju.i<f>9ri.

But the chief author of the fable was a cheating fellow,


84
who, that he might lie with authority, took
upon him the
name of Amphilochius, St Basil's companion, and set out
85
a book of his life, fraught with 1
casings, as Cardinal
Baronius himself acknowledge th. St Augustine's conclusion,
" 86 Let those
therefore,may here well take place: things
be taken away which are either fictions of lying men, or
wonders wrought by evil spirits. For either there is no
truth in these reports, be any strange things
or if there
done by heretics, we ought the more to beware of them,
because, when the Lord had said that certain deceivers should
come, who by doing of some wonders should seduce, if it
were possible, the very elect, he very earnestly commended

82 86
Inter sententias Patrum, a Pelagic Removeantur ista vel figmenta men-
Romanse ecclesiae diacono Latine versas, dacium hominum, vel portenta fallacium
libell. 18, cui titulus de Providentia, vel spirituum. Aut enim non sunt vera quag
Praevidentia ; sive, ut in Photii Biblio- dicuntur ; aut si haereticorum aliqua mira
theca habetur, Cod. 98. irepi diopaTiKiav. facta sunt, magis cavere debemus quod
:

83
Tom. iv. Surii, p. 257, edit. Colon, cum dixisset Dominus quosdam futuros
ann. 15J3. esse fallaces, qui nonnulla signa faciendo
84
Nomen
Amphilochii ad mentiendum etiam electos, si fieri posset, fallerent ; ad-

accepit. Baron. Tom. iv. ann. 369, sect. 43. jecit vehementer commendans, et ait, Ecce
85
Scatens mendaciis. Id. ibid. ann. praedixi vobis. August, de Uni tat. Eccles.
363, sect. 55. cap. 16.
III.]
OF THK REAL PRESENCE. 65

this unto our consideration, and said, Behold, I have fold


1 ''

you before;' yea, and added a further charge also, that


s7
if these impostors should say unto us of him, Behold, he
is in secret closets, we should not believe it which whether :

it be appliable to them who tell us that Christ is to be


found in a pix, and think that they have him in safe cus-
tody under lock and key, I leave to the consideration of
others.
The which now I would have further observed
thing
is
only this, that, as that wretched heretic who first went
about to persuade men by his lying wonders, that he really
delivered blood unto them in the cup of the Eucharist, was
censured for being eio)Xo7rok, an idol-maker; so in after-
ages, from the idol-makers and image- worshippers
of the
East it this gross opinion of the oral eating and
was that
drinking of Christ in the Sacrament drew its first breath ;
vs
God having, for their idolatry, justly given them up unto
a reprobate mind, that they might receive that recompence
of their error which was meet. The Pope's name, in whose
days this fell out, was Gregory the Third ; the man's name,
89
who was the principal setter of it abroach, was John
Damascen, one that laid the foundation of school-divinity
among the Greeks, as Peter Lombard afterwards did among
the Latins. On the contrary side, they who opposed the
idolatry of those times, and more especially
the 338 Bishops
assembled together at the Council of Constantinople in the
chose no other shape Christ " 90
year 754, maintained, that
or type under heaven to represent his incarnation by," but
the Sacrament, which "
91
he delivered to his ministers for
a type and a most effectual commemoration" thereof;
" 92
commanding the substance of bread to be offered, which
did not any way resemble the form of a man, that so no
occasion might be given of bringing in idolatry ;" whicli
bread they affirmed to be the body of Christ, not

87 Matt. xxiv. 26. Tti/ avTou ffpKioffiv ovuafie-


88 vov.
Rom. i.
27, 28.

^^
91 Kai dvdfjLVt]oriv
Eis
^^
TI'ITTOV t;
89
Damascen. Orthodox. Fid. lib. iv.
a ^ -

cap. 14. 92
"Ap-rov ovffiav irpotreTa^e Trpovipepe
OVK \Xou trQat, /uj a-X'J/-iaTiot/<rai> dvQpwirov /uo/o

Trap" UVTOU t'i> TTJ ICTT"


ovpavov, i\ TVTTOV <^)/, 'iva fj.il

K
66 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

but Secret, that is, as


" 93 a
they themselves expound it, holy"
and " 94
a true image of his natural flesh."
These assertions of theirs are to be found in the 95 third
tome of the sixth Action of the second Council of Nice,
assembled not long after for the re-establishing of images
in the Church, where a pratchant deacon, called Epiphanius,
to cross that which those former
bishops had delivered,
confidently avoucheth, that none of the Apostles nor of the
Fathers did ever call the Sacrament an image of the
body
of Christ. He confesseth indeed that some of the Fathers
(as Eustathius expounding the Proverbs of Solomon, and
St Basil in his Liturgy) do call the bread and wine avTiTwrra,
correspondent types or figures, before they were consecrated;
" but after the consecration," saith he, " they are called,
96

and are, and believed to be the body and blood of Christ


properly;" where the Pope's own followers, who of late
published the Acts of the general Councils at Rome, were
so far ashamed of the ignorance of this blind
bayard, that
" 97 The
they correct his boldness with this marginal note :

holy gifts are oftentimes found to be called antitypes," or


"after they be consecrated ; as
figures correspondent, by
Gregory Nazianzen in the Funeral Oration upon his sister,
and in
Apology; by Cyril of Jerusalem, in his fifth
his
Cateches. Mystagogic. ; and by others." And we have
already heard how the author of the Dialogues against the
Marcionites, and after him Eusebius and Gelasius, expressly
call the Sacrament an image of Christ's body; howsoever
this peremptory clerk denieth that ever any did so. By all
which it may easily appear that not the oppugners, but the
defenders of images, were the men who first went about
herein to alter the language used by their forefathers.
Now, as in the days of Gregory the Third this matter
was set afoot by Damascen in the East, so about a hundred

)3
To 0e<rei, V\TOI fj eiKtov avTov dyia. TVTTU, fj.6Td 8e TOV dyiafffwv a-co/ma Kvpiutf
4
*
Tov Trjs euxa/oio-Ttas dpTov, &> d- Kal alfjLa X/CHO-TOU \eyovTai, KOI ei<ri, Kai
il/evdrj eiKova TT/S <f>v(riK7Js <rapKo<s, &c. TTHTTevovTai. Ibid. p. 601.
So a 97
little after it is called rj 6eoTrapdSoTos 'AvTiTvira fiCTa TO dyiacrQfjvctL
e'iK(av TTJS o-a/o/cos O.VTOU, and dtyevdiis Xa/as evpijTai KaXou/zei/a T a'yia Swpa'
j

eiKwu T^9 evardpKov ot/coj/o/itas XJOKTTOV. oloi/ irapd Tpqyop. TO> 0eoX. ev Tto ets Tr;V
j

95
Concil. Gener. Tom. in. p. 599, 600. j doeXQnv eTrtr. /cot ej/ T^ dtroXoyia vapd
edit. Rom. j
Ku/otXXw 'lepoo-oX. /caTt?x /UI/O-T. e. /cat
96
II/oo TOW dytao-O^j/ai e/cXrj'0r; di/Tt- !
aXXots. Ib. in margine.
HI.] OF THE REAL PRESENCE. (>7

years after, in the papacy of Gregory the Fourth, the same


began to be propounded in the West by means of one
Amalarius, who was bishop, not, as he is
commonly taken
to be, of Triers, but of Mets first, and afterwards of Lyons.
This man, writing doubtfully of this point, otherwhiles
<J

followeth the Sacraments


doctrine of St Augustine, *that
were oftentimes called by the names of the things themselves,
and so the Sacrament of Christ's body was secundum quen-
dam modum, " after a certain manner the body of Christ ;"
otherwhiles maketh a part of his " the 9i(
belief, that
it simple
nature of the bread and wine mixed is turned into a reason-
able nature, to wit, of the body and blood of Christ." But
what should become of this body after the eating thereof,
was a matter that went beyond his little wit; and therefore,
said he, " 100 when the body of Christ is taken with a good

intention, it is not for me to dispute whether it be invisibly


taken up into heaven, or kept in our body until the day
of our burial, or exhaled into the air, or whether it go out
of the body with the blood," at the opening of a vein,
" or be sent out
by the mouth our Lord saying that ;

every thing which entereth into the mouth goeth into the
belly, and is sent forth into the draught" For this and
another like
m de triformi et tripartito corpore
foolery
" of the three
Christi, parts or kinds of Christ's body,"
(which seem to be those ineptue de tripartito Christi cor-
pore, that Paschasius in the end of his Epistle intreateth
l02
Frudegardus not to follow,) he was censured in a Synod
held at Carisiacum, or Cressy wherein it was declared by the
;

" 103 the bread and wine are


bishops of France, that spiritually
made the body of Christ; which being a meat of the mind,

98
Amalar. de Ecclesiastic. Offic. lib. i. Omne quod intrat in os in ventrem vadit,
cap. 24. et in secessum emittitur. Idem in Epi-
99
Hie credimus naturam simplicem pa- stola ad Guitardum MS. in Biblioth.
nis et vini mixti verti in naturam ratio- Colleg. S. Benedict. Cantabrig. Cod. LV.
101 Id. de EcclesiastOffic. lib.
nabilem, scilicet corporis et sanguinis iii.
cap.35.
Christi. Id. lib. ly2 Florus in Actis Synod. Carisiac.
iii.
cap. 24.
100 Jt a vero sumtum corpus Domini MS. apud N. Ranchinum, in Senatu
bona intentione, non est mihi disputan- Tolosano Regium Consiliarium. Vide
dum utrum invisibiliter assumatur in Phil. Morn, de Miss. lib. iv. cap. 8.
coclum, aut reservetur in corpore nostro
103 Panis et vinum efficitur spiritualiter
usque in diem sepulturae, aut exhaletut in corpus Christi, &c.Mentis ergo est cibus
auras, aut exeat de corpore cum sanguine, iste,non ventris; nee corrumpitur, st-d
aut per os emittatur ; dicente Domino, permanet in vitam aeternam. Ibid.
K 2
68 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

and not of the belly, is not corrupted, but remaineth unto


everlasting life."

These dotages of Amalarius did not only give occasion


to question propounded by Heribaldus to Rabanus,
that
whereof we have spoken 1W heretofore, but also to that other
of far greater consequence, Whether that which was ex-

ternally delivered and received in the Sacrament were the


very same body which was born of the Virgin Mary, and
suffered upon the cross, and rose again from the grave ?
Paschasius Radbertus, a deacon of those times, but some-
what of a better and more modest temper than the Greek
deacon shewed himself to be of, held that it was the very
same, and to that purpose wrote his book to Placidus of
the body and blood of our Lord ; wherein, saith a Jesuit,
" 105 he was the first that did so
explicate the true sense of
the Catholic Church," (his own Roman he meaneth,) " that
he opened the way to those many others who wrote after-
wards of the same argument." Rabanus, on the other side,
in his answer to Heribaldus, and in a former writing directed
to Abbot
Egilo, maintained the contrary doctrine, as hath
before noted. Then one Frudegardus, reading the
been
third book of St Augustine de Doctrina Christiana, and

finding there that the eating of the flesh and drinking of


the blood of Christ was a figurative manner of speech, began
somewhat to doubt of the truth of that which formerly he
had read in that foresaid treatise of Paschasius ; which moved
Paschasius to write again of the same argument, as of a
" 106
question wherein he confesseth many were then doubtful."
But neither by his first nor by his second writing was he
able to take these doubts out of -men's minds; and there-
fore Carolus Calvus, the Emperor, being desirous to compose
these differences,and to have unity settled among his sub-
jects,required Ratrannus, a learned man of that time, who
lived in the monastery of Corbey, whereof Paschasius had
been abbot, to deliver his judgment touching these points :

104
Supra p. 15. et sanguinis Domini in Eucharistia. Bell,
105
Genuinum Ecclesiae Catholicae sen- de Script. Ecclesiast.
sum ita primus explicuit, ut viam ceteris !
lo6
Quasris enim de re ex qua multi
aperuerit, qui de eodem argumento multi dubitant. And again Quamvis multi ex
:

postea scripsere. Jac. Sirmond. in Vita ! hoc dubitent, quomodo ille integer manet,
Radberti. Hie auctor primus fuit, qui i et hoc corpus Christi et sanguis esse possit.

serio et copiose scripsit de veritate corporis J


Pasch. Epist. ad Frudegard.
in.] OK THE REAL PRESENCE. 69

u Whether the body and blood of Christ, which in the


1()7

Church is received by the mouth of the faithful, be cele-


brated in a mystery, or in the truth and whether it be ;

the same body which was born of Mary, which did suffer,
was dead and buried, and which rising again, and ascending
into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of the Father?"
Whereunto he returneth this answer: that " 108 the bread
and the wine are the body and blood of Christ figuratively ;"
that " 109
for the substance of the creatures, that which they
were before consecration, the same are they also afterward;"
that u 110 they are called the Lord's body and the Lord's
blood, because they take the name of that thing of which
and that " ni there is a great dif-
11
they are a sacrament;
ference betwixt the mystery of the blood and body of
Christ, which is taken now by the faithful in the Church,
and that which was born of the Virgin Mary, which suffered,
which was buried, which rose again, which sitteth at the
right hand of the Father." All which he proveth at large,
both 112 by testimonies of the holy Scriptures, and by the
sayings of the ancient Fathers. Whereupon Turrian the
Jesuit is driven for pure need to shift off the matter with
this silly interrogation: " To cite Bertram," (so Ratrannus
113

is more
" what is it else but to
usually named,) say, that
the heresy of Calvin is not new?" As if these things were
alleged by us for any other end than to shew, that this

107 sumi-
Quod in ecclesia ore fidelium separari mysterium sanguinis et corporis
tur corpus et sanguis Christi, quaerit vestrae Christi, quod nunc a fidelibus sumitur in
magnitudinis excellentia, in mysterio fiat, ecclesia, et illud quod natum est de Maria
an in veritate, &c. et utrum ipsum corpus Virgine, quod passum, quod sepultum,
sit, quod de Maria natum est, et passum, quod resurrexit, quod ccelos ascendit, quod
mortuum et sepultum, quodque resurgens ad dextram Patris sedet. Ibid. p. 222.
112
et ccelos ascendens, ad dextram Patris con- Animadvertat, clarissime Princeps,
sideat ? Ratrann. sive Bertram, in lib. de sapientia vestra, quod positis sanctarum
Corp. et Sang. Dom. edit. Colon, ann. 1551. Scripturarum testimoniis et sanctorum
p. 180. Patrum dictis evidentissime monstratum
IDS p anis ille vinumque figurate Christi est; quod panis qui corpus Christi, et
corpus et sanguis existit. Ibid. p. 183. calix qui sanguis Christi appellatur, figura
109 Nam secundum creaturarum substan- sit, quia mysterium; et quod non parva
tiam, quod fuerunt ante consecrationem, differentia sit inter corpus quod per myste-
hoc et postea consistunt. Ibid. p. 205. rium existit, et corpus quod passum est,
110
Dominicum corpus et sanguis Domi- et sepultum, et resurrexit. Ibid. p. 228.
113
nicus appellantur ; quoniam ejus sumunt Ceterum Bertramum citare, quid
appellationem, cujus existunt sacramen- aliud est, quam dicere, haeresim Calvini
tum. Ibid. p. 200. non essc novam ? Fr. Turrian. de Eu-
111
Videmus itaquc multa differentia rharist. contra Volanum, lib. i.
cap. 22.
ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

way which they call heresy is not new, but hath been trodden
in long since by such as in their times were accounted good
and catholic teachers in the Church that since they have:

been esteemed otherwise, is an argument of the alteration


of the times, and of the conversion of the state of things;
which is the matter that now we are enquiring of, and
which our adversaries, in an evil hour to them, do so earnestly
press us to discover.
The Emperor Charles, unto whom this answer of
Ratrannus was directed, had then in his court a famous
countryman of ours, called Johannes Scotus, who wrote a
book of the same argument and to the same effect that the
other had done. This man for his extraordinary learning
was in England (where he lived in great account with King
Alfred) surnamed John the Wise, and had very lately a
114
room Marty rology of the Church of Rome, though
in the
now he be ejected thence. We find him indeed censured
by the Church of Lyons and others in that time, for certain

opinions which he delivered touching God's foreknowledge


and predestination before the beginning of the world, man's
freewill, and the concurrence thereof with grace in this pre-
sent world, and the manner of the punishment of reprobate
men and angels in the world to come but we find not ;

any where that this book of the Sacrament was condemned


before the days of 115 Lanfranc, who was the first that leavened
the Church of England afterward with this corrupt doctrine
of the carnal presence. Till then, this question of the real
continued still in debate ; and it was as free for
presence any
man to follow the doctrine of Ratrannus or Johannes Scotus
therein, as that of Paschasius Radbertus, which, since the
time of Satan's loosing, obtained the upper hand. fc ' 116
Men
have often searched, and do yet often search, how bread
that is gathered of corn, and through fire's heat baked, may
be turned to Christ's body; or how wine that is pressed
out of many grapes, is turned, through one blessing, to
the Lord's blood;" saith JSlfrick, abbot of Malmsbury, in
his Saxon Homily, written about 605 years ago. His resolu-

114 116
Martyrolog. Rom. iv. Id. Novemb. Homilia Paschalis, Anglo-Saxonice
edit. Antuerp. ann. 1586. impressa Londini per Jo. Daium, et MS.
115 Lanfranc. lib. dc Sacrament. Eucha- in Publica Cantabrigiensis Academne
rist, contra Berengar. Bibliotheca.
HI.] OF THE REAL PRESENCE.

tion is not only the same with that of Ratrannus, but also
in many places directly translated out of him, as may appear
by these passages following, compared with his Latin laid
down in the margin :

" 117
The bread and the wine, which by the Priest's
ministry is hallowed, shew one thing without to men's senses,
and another thing they call within to believing minds.
Without they be seen bread and wine both in figure and
in taste ; and they be truly after their hallowing Christ's
" 118 So the
body and his bloodby spiritual mystery." holy
font-water, that is called the well-spring of life, is like in

shape to and is subject to corruption; but


other waters,
the Holy Ghost's might cometh to the corruptible water

through the Priest's blessing, and it may after wash the


body and soul from all sin by spiritual virtue. Behold
now, we see two things in this one creature; in true nature
that water is corruptible moisture, and in spiritual mystery
hath healing virtue. So also, if we behold that holy housel
after bodily sense, then see we that it is a creature cor-
ruptible and mutable. If we acknowledge therein spiritual
virtue, then understand we that life is therein, and that it
" 119 Much
giveth immortality to them that eat it with belief."
is betwixt the
body Christ suffered in, and the body that
is hallowed to housel/'
" 120 The
body truly that Christ

117 Ille
panis qui per Sacerdotis minis- duo vidcmus inesse sibi resistentia, &c.
terium Christ! corpus efficitur, aliud ex- Igitur in proprietate humor corruptibilis,
terius humanis sensibus ostendit, et aliud in mysterio vero virtus sanabilis. Sic ita-
interius fidelium mentibus clamat. Ex- que Christi corpus et sanguis, superficie
terius quidem panis, quod ante fuerat, tenus considerata, creatura est, mutabili-
forma praetenditur, color ostenditur, sapor taticorruptelaeque subjecta: si mysterii
accipitur; ast interius Christi corpus os- vero perpendis virtutem, vita est, parti -
tenditur. Ratrann. sive Bertram, de Corp. cipantibus se tribuens immortalitatem.
et Sang. Dom. p. 182. Ibid. p. 187, 188.
119
118
Consideremus fontem sacri baptis- Multa differentia separantur corpus

matis, qui fons vitae non immerito nuncu- in quo passus est Christus, et hoc corpus
patur, &c. In eo si consideretur solum- quod in mysterio passionis Christi quoti-
inodo quod corporeus aspicit sensus, ele- die a fidelibus celebratur. Ibid. p. 212
mentum fluidum conspicitur, corruption!
et222.
120 Ilia caro
subjectum, nee nisi corpora lavandi po- namque qua crucifixa est,
tentiam obtinere. Sed accessit Sancti de Virginis came facta est, ossibus et
Spiritus per Sacerdotis consecrationem nervis compacta, et humanorum mem-
virtus ; non solum cor-
et efficax facta est brorum lineamentis distincta, rationalis
pora, verum etiam animas diluere, et anima; spiritu vivificata in propriam vitam
spirituales sordes spiritual! potentia di- et congruentes motus. At vero carospiritu-
movere. Ecce in uno codeinquc clemcnto alis, qiw populum credentem spiritualitcr
72 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

suffered in was born of the flesh of


Mary, with blood and
with bone, with skin and with sinews, in human limbs,
with a reasonable soul living ; and his spiritual body, which
we call the housel, is gathered of many corns, without blood
and bone, without limb, without soul and therefore nothing ;

is to be understood therein bodily, but spiritually. What-


soever is in that housel, which giveth substance of life, that
" 121
is
spiritual virtue and invisible doing." Certainly Christ's
body which suffered death, and rose from death, shall never
die henceforth, but is eternal and unpassible. That housel
is
temporal, not eternal, corruptible and dealed into sundry
parts, chewed between the teeth, and sent into the belly.'"
" 122 This
mystery is a pledge and a figure: Christ's body
is truth itself. This pledge we do keep mystically until
that we be come to the truth itself, and then is this pledge
ended." " 123 Christ hallowed bread and wine to housel before
his suffering, and said, This is my body and my blood. Yet
he had not then suffered ; but so notwithstanding he turned,
through invisible virtue, the bread to his own body, and
that wine to his blood, as he before did in the wilderness
before that he was born to men, when he turned that heavenly
meat to his flesh, and the flowing water from that stone to
his own blood."
" m Moses and
Aaron, and many other of
that people which pleased God, did eat that heavenly bread,

pascit, secundum speciem quam gerit donee ad illud perveniatur; ubi vero ad
exterius, frumenti granis manu artificis illud perventum fuerit, hoc removebitur.

consistit, nullis nervis ossibusque com- Ibid. p. 222.


123
pacta, nulla membrorum varietate dis- Videmus nondum passuvn esse Chris-
tincta, nulla rational! substantia vegetata, tum, &c. Sicut ergo paullo antequam

potens motus exercere.


nullos proprios pateretur, panis substantiam et vini crea-
Quicquid enim in ea vitse prsebet sub- turam convertere potuit in proprium corpus
stantiam, spiritualis est potentise, et in- quod passurum erat, et in suum sanguinem
visibilis efficientiae, divineeque virtutis. qui post fundendus exstabat ; sic etiam in
Ibid. p. 214. deserto manna et aquam de petra in suam
Corpus Christi quod mortuum est et carnem et sanguinem convertere praeva-
121

resurrexit, et immortale factum, jam non luit, &c. Ibid. p. 193,


124
moritur, et mors illi ultra non dominabitur ; Manducavit et Moses manna, man-
aeternumest,necjampassibile. Hocautem ducavit et Aaron, manducavit et Phinees,

quod in ecclesia celebratur, temporale est, manducaverunt ibi multi qui Deo placue-
non aeternum ; corruptibile est, non incor- runt et mortui non sunt. Quare ? Quia
;

ruptum, &c. dispartitur ad sumendum, et visibilem cibum spiritualiter intellexerunt,


dentibus commolitum, in corpus trajicitur. spiritualiter esurierunt, spiritualiter gus-
Ibid. p. 216, 217. taverunt, ut spiritualiter satiarentur. Ibitl.
122
Ethoc corpus pignus est et species; p. 217, ex Augustin. in Evang. Johan.
illud vero ipsa veritas. Hoc enim geritur. Tractat. xxvi.
III.]
OF THE REAL PRESENCE. 7^

and they died not the everlasting death, though they died
the common. They saw that the heavenly meat was visible
and corruptible, and they spiritually understood by that
visible thing, and spiritually received it."
This Homily was appointed publicly to be read to the
people in England on Easter-day, before they did receive
the communion. The like matter also was delivered to the
clergy by the bishops at their synods, out of two other
125
writings of the same JClfrick in the one whereof, directed
;

to Wulfsine, Bishop of Sherburne, we read thus:


" That
housel Christ's body, not bodily, but spiritually
is not :

the body which he suffered in, but the body of which he


spake, when he blessed bread and wine to housel the night
before his suffering, and said by the blessed bread, This is
my body ; and again by the holy wine, This is my blood,
which is shed for many in forgiveness of sins" In the
other, written to Wulfstane, Archbishop of York, thus:
" The Lord which hallowed housel before his
suffering, and
saith that the bread was his own body, and that the wine
was truly his blood, hallo weth daily by the hands of the
Priest bread to his body and wine to his blood in spiritual

mystery, as we read in books. And yet notwithstanding


that lively bread is not bodily so, nor the selfsame body
that Christ suffered in ; nor that holy wine is the Saviour's
blood which was shed for us, in bodily thing, but in spiritual
understanding. Both be truly, that bread his body, and
that wine also his blood, as was the heavenly bread which
we manna, that fed forty years God's people, and the
call
clear which did then run from the stone in the
water
wilderness was truly his blood, as Paul wrote in one of his

Epistles."
Thus was
priest and people taught to believe in the
Church of England toward the end of the tenth and the
beginning of the eleventh age after the incarnation of our
Saviour Christ. And therefore it is not to be wondered,
that when Berengarius shortly after stood to maintain this
12G
doctrine, many both by word and writing disputed for

125
Impress. Londini cum Homllia 126
Sigebert. Gemblac. ct Guliel. Nan-
Paschali, et MS. in publica Oxoniensis giac. in Chronic, ann. 1051. Conrad. Bru-
Acaclemiac Bibliothcrn, et Colleg. S. Be- wilerens. inVitaWolphehni; armd Suriuiru
nedict. Cantab. April. 22.
74 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

him; and not only the English, but also all the French
almost and the Italians, as 127 Matthew of Westminster
reporteth, were so ready to entertain that which he delivered.
Who though they were so borne down by the power of the
Pope, who now was grown to his height, that they durst
not make open profession of that which they believed; yet

many continued, even there where Satan had his throne,


who privately employed both their tongues and their pens
in defence of the truth, as out of Zacharias Chrysopolitanus,
128
Rupertus Tuitiensis and others, I have elsewhere shewed.
Until at length, in the year 1215, Pope Innocent the Third,
in the Council of Lateran, published it to the Church for
an oracle, that " 129 the body and blood of" Jesus Christ
"are truly contained under the forms of bread and wine;
the bread being transubstantiated into the body, and the
wine into the blood, by the power of God." And so are
we now come to the end of this controversy, the original
and progress whereof I have prosecuted the more at large,
because it is of greatest importance; the very life of the
Mass and all
massing priests depending thereupon. There
folio weth the third point, which is

OF CONFESSION.

OUR Challenger here telleth us, that the Doctors,


Pastors and Fathers of the primitive Church " exhorted
the people to confess their sins unto their ghostly fathers."
And we tell him again, that by the public order prescribed
in our Church, before the administration of the holy com-

munion, the Minister likewise doth exhort the people, that


"if there be any of them which cannot quiet his own con-
science, but requireth further comfort or counsel," he should
" come to him or some other discreet and learned Minister
of God's word, and open his grief, that he may receive such

ghostly counsel, advice and comfort, as his conscience may


be relieved; and that by the ministry of God's word he

127 Flor. Histor. ann. 1087. mento altaris sub speciebus panis et vini
128
De Christian. Eccles. Success, et veraciter continentur ; transubstantiatis
Stat. edit. ann. 1613, p. et 208. pane in corpus, et vino in sanguinem po-
190192, j

129
Gujus corpus et sanguis in sacra- I
testate divina. Concil. Lateran. cap. i.
IV.]
OF CONFESSION.

may comfort and the benefit of absolution, to the


receive

quieting of his conscience and avoiding of all scruple and


doubtfulness." Whereby it appeareth, that the exhorting of
the people to confess their sins unto their ghostly fathers
maketh no such wall of separation betwixt the ancient Doctors
and us, but we may well for all this be of the same religion
that they were of, and consequently that this doughty cham-

pion hath more will than skill to manage controversies, who


could make no wiser choice of points of differences to be
insisted upon.
Be it therefore known unto him, that no kind of Con-
fession, or private, is disallowed by us, that
either public
is
any way requisite for the due execution of that ancient

power of the keys which Christ bestowed upon his Church.


The thing which we reject is that new picklock of sacra-
mental Confession, obtruded upon men's consciences, as a
matter necessary to salvation, by the canons of the late
Conventicle of Trent, where those good Fathers put their
curse upon every one that either shall " *deny that sacra-
mental Confession was ordained by divine right, and is
by
the same right necessary to salvation ;" or shall " 2 affirm
that in the Sacrament of Penance it is not by the ordinance
of God necessary, for the obtaining of the remission of sins,
to confess all and every one of those mortal sins, the memory
whereof by due and diligent premeditation may be had, even
such as are hidden, and be against the two last Command-
ments of the Decalogue, together with the circumstances
which change the kind of the sin; but that this Confession
is
only profitable to instruct and comfort the penitent, and
was anciently observed only for the imposing of canonical
satisfaction." This doctrine, I say, we cannot but reject,
as being repugnant to that which we have learned both from
the Scriptures and from the Fathers.

moria cum debita


1
Si quis negaverit, Confessionem sacra- et diligent! prsemedita-
mentalem vel institutam, vel ad salutem tione habeatur, etiam occulta et quae sunt
necessariam esse, jure divino, &c. Ana- contra duo ultima Decalogi praecepta, et
thema sit. Concil. Trident. Sess. xiv. circumstantias quae peccati speciem mu-
Can. 6. tant, sed earn confessionem tantum esse
2
Si quis dixerit, in sacramento pceni- utilem ad erudiendum et consolandum
ad remissionem peccatorum neces-
tcntisc pcenitentem, et olim obscrvatam f uisse tan-
sarium non esse jure divino, confiteri omnia tum ad satisfactionem canonicam impo-
et singula peccata mortalia, quorum me- nendam, &c. Anathema sit. Ibid. Can. 7-
7^ ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP,

For in the Scriptures we find, that the confession which


the penitent sinner maketh to God alone, hath the
promise
of forgiveness annexed unto it, which no earth priest upon
hath power to make void upon pretence that himself or
some of his fellows were not first particularly acquainted
with the business: 3 7 acknowledged my sin unto thee, and
mine iniquity have I not hid: I said, I will confess my
transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the
iniquity of my sin. And lest we should think that this
was some peculiar privilege vouchsafed to *the man who
was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob,
the same sweet psalmist of Israel doth
presently enlarge his
5
note, and inferreth this general conclusion thereupon: For
this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a
time when thou mayest be found. King Solomon, in his
prayer for the people at the dedication of the temple,
treadeth just in his father's steps. If they turn, saith 6 he,
and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying,
We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt
wickedly ; if they return to thee with all their heart, and
with all their soul, &c. forgive thy people which have sinned
against thee all their transgressions wherein they have
transgressed against thee. And the poor 7 publican, putting
up his supplication in the temple accordingly, God be mer-
ciful to me a sinner, went back to his house justified,
without making confession to any other ghostly father, but
8
only the Father whom St John giveth us
of spirits; of
g
this assurance, that if we
confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. Which promise, that it appertained to
such as did confess their sins unto God, the ancient Fathers
were so well assured of, that they cast in a manner all upon
this confession, and left little or nothing to that which was
made unto man. Nay, they do not only leave it free for
men to confess or not confess their sins unto others, which
is the most that we would have; but some of them also
seem, in words at least, to advise men not to do it at all,
which is more than we seek for.

3 6
Psalm xxxii. 5. 2Chron.vi.37,39; 1 Kings viii. 47, 50.
4
2 Sam. xxiii. 1. 7 Luke xviii. 13, 14.
5 8
Psalm xxxii. 6. Heb. xii. 9. 1 John i. 9.
OF CONFESSION. 77

Chrysostom of all others is most copious


St in this

argument, some of whose passages to this purpose I will


here down " 10 It is not
lay : saith necessary," he,
" that
thou shouldest confess in the presence of witnesses: let the
enquiry of thy offences be made in thy thought ; let this
judgment be without a witness; let God only see thee
" n Therefore I intreat and beseech and
confessing." pray
you, you would continually make your confession to
that
God. For
I do not bring thee into the theatre of
thy
fellow-servants, neither do I constrain thee to discover thy
sins unto men unclasp thy conscience before God, and
:

shew thy wounds unto him, and of him ask a medicine.


Shew them to him that will not reproach, but heal thee.
For although thou hold thy peace, he knoweth all." " 12 Let
us not call ourselves sinners only, but let us recount our

sins, and repeat every one of them in special. I do not

say unto thee, Bring thyself upon the stage, nor, Accuse
thyself unto others.; but I counsel thee to obey the prophet,
saying, Reveal thy way unto the Lord. Confess them before
God, confess thy sins before the
Judge, praying, if not with
thy tongue, yet at least with thy memory ; and so look to
obtain mercy." " 13 But thou art ashamed to
say that thou
hast sinned. Confess thy faults then daily in thy
prayer.
For do I say, Confess them to thy fellow-servant, who may

12
10
Nunc autem neque necessarium prae- Mjj a'/ia/OTcoXovs Ka\iafjLev euvTovs
sentibus testibus confiteri :
cogitatione fiat fjiovov, aXXa Kal TU afia/OTtj/xaTa dva\o-
delictorum exquisitio, absque teste sit hoc yurw/jLeQa, KUT' el^os cKaorTov dvaXeyov-
judicium. Solus te Deus confitentem T6s. Ou Xeyaj trot, 'E/cTro/xTreuo'Of <ravTov,
videat. Chrysost. Homil. de Pcenitent.
et Confession. Tom. v. edit. Latin. Col. TreiQecrQai <rv/i/3oi;Xeva> TO) Trpo^JjVp Xe-

001, edit. Basil, ann. 1558. yoVTL, A-TTO/CaXui^OI/ TT/OOS KvpLOV TTJV bSoV
11
Aict TOVTO TrapaKoXw Kal (TOV. eirl TOV Qeov TavTa 6/j.o\6yij<rov, CTTI
TOV StKatrTOv bfioXoyei Ta a/xa/oTjj'^iaTa,
Qeaj. oiroe yap ets QeaTpov dyoa TO>V
ere v\6fjievo<s, el Kal p.ij TT} yXooTTy, a'XXa
<TVVOo{)\<aV T(i)V (TWV, OU06 eKKCL\V\l/at TCHS TTJ /jLViifMri,
Kal OVTCOS diov t\er)6?;vat.

di>0/ocu7rois avay/ca^w TCC dp.apTt]p.aTa. TO Id. in Epist. ad Hebr. cap. xii. Homil.
ffweiSos dvaTTTvfcov ep.irpocQev TOV BeoD, xxxi. Tom. iv. Savil. p. 589.
Kai auTai oeTov TCC TpavpaTa, Kal Trap' 13
AXX' aiayyvij elirelv, OIOTI i'mapTfS.
avTov TO. f})dpfjLUKa CUTI]<TOV . Aetoi> TU>
Xeye au-ra Ka6' rjfiepav ev Trj ev^y arov.
pi] oveici^ovTi are, aXXa QepairevovTi. KO.V Kal TL E'nre Tut <rvvdov\tp
; /u.j ydp Xeyw,
yap <rv
(TtyifiTfl?, oidev e/celi/os airavTa. TUJ oveio'i^ovTL <re el-Tre TO) Qeta TU>
; Qepa-
Id. circa finem Horn. v. irepi aV-a-raXtj- TrevovTL avTa. ov ydp, eaV fii] ei-Trrjs, dyvoel
TTTOU, de incomprehensib. DeiNatur.Tom. avTa o Geo's. Id. in Psal. L. Horn. n.
vi. edit. Gra?c. D. Hen. Savil. p. 424, et Tom. i. Savil. p. 708.
Tom. v. p. 202, 263.
ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

reproach thee therewith ? Confess them to God, who healeth


them. For, although thou confess them not at all, God is
not ignorant of them." " u Wherefore
then, tell me, art
thou ashamed and blushest to confess thy sins? For dost
thou discover them to a man, that he may reproach thee ?
Dost thou confess them to thy fellow-servant, that he may
bring thee upon the stage? To him who is thy Lord, who
hath care of thee, who is kind, who is thy physician, thou
shewest thy wound." " 15 I constrain thee
not, saith God,
to go into the midst of the theatre, and to make many
witnesses of the matter. Confess thy sins to me alone in

private, that I may heal thy sore, and free thee from grief."
" 16 And this is not
only wonderful, that he forgiveth us
our sins, but that he neither discovereth them, nor maketh
them open and manifest, nor constraineth us to come forth
in public, and disclose our misdemeanours ; but commandeth
us to give an account thereof unto him alone, and unto him
to make confession of them."
Neither Chrysostom here walk alone.
doth St That
is to the same effect:
" 17 What
saying of St
Augustine
have I to do with men, that they should hear my confessions,
as though they should heal all my diseases ?" And that
Collection of St Hilary upon the two last verses of the
52d Psalm, 18 that David there teacheth us " to confess to
no other," but unto the Lord, " who hath made the olive
fruitful (or, the hope of mercy)
with the mercy of hope
for and ever."
ever And that advice of Pinuphius, the
Egyptian Abbot, which I find also inserted among the
14
T/J/O? yap evexev aiayyvri KOI epv- j
(pavepd Kal drjXa, ovoe dvayKa^ei irapeX-
0/otas, ei-rre fiot, rd a/xapTrj/xara e'rtrelv ;
is fj.etrov

,urj yap dvdpiaTrta Xeyets, 'Lva oveiolari ere ; i, dXX' au'


|U)j yap Tw avvoov\w bfJLO\oyeISf 'iva tx- tceXevei, /CCUTT/OOS avTov ^<

Tro/JLTTcvcry ;
TW devn-OTy, TO> KtjSe/movi, T> Id. 'AvdpidvT. ad Pop. Antiochen.
in

<pi\avQp<oTr(jp s TO} laTpio TO Tpav/jia 67ri-


Homil. xxi. Tom. vi. Savil. p. 608.
SeiKvveis. Id. Homil. iv. de Lazaro, Quid mihi ergo est cum hominibus,
17

Tom. v. Savil. p. 258. ut audiant confessiones meas, quasi ipsi


10
OVK sanaturi sint omnes languores meps ?
dj/ay/ca'a>, <prjcrLV, eis p.earov e\-
Qelv ae QeaTpov, Kal p.dpTvpa<s irepiaTr/crai. Aug. Confess, lib. x. cap. 3.
18
TroXXows. 'E^Lioi TO a^ua'jOTrjfiot eiTre /movca Confessionis autem causam addidit,
/car' ISiav, 'iva Qepairevata TO t \Kos, Kal dicens, Quia fecisti auctoiem scilicet uni-
!

a7ra\Xaa) TT/S 68uvi^. Id. ibid. versitatis hujus Dominum esse confessus ;

16
Ou TOVTO Se p.6vov icrTL TO Qavp.a<TTuv, nulli alii docens confitendum, qui quam
OTL d<pit]Cfiv rj/uf Ta d/j.apTt'ifiaTa, dXX' OTI fecit olivam fructiferam spei misericordia
ovde cKKa\6TTTei, ovde iroiel avrd in seculum seculi. Hilar. in Psal. lii.
IV.]
OF CONFESSION. 7^

''canons, collected for the use of the Church of England,


in the time of the Saxons, under the title, De Pccnitentia
soli Deo confitenda:
" 20 is it that cannot Who
humbly say,
/ made my sin known unto thee, and mine iniquity have
I not hid, that by this confession he may confidently adjoin
that which followeth And thou forgavest the impiety of
:

my heart? But if shamefacedness do so draw thee back


that thou blushest to reveal them before men, cease not by
continual supplication to confess them unto him from whom

they cannot be hid, and to say, / know mine iniquity, and


my sin is against me always to thee only have I sinned,
and done evil before thee, whose custom is, both to cure
without the publishing of any shame, and to forgive sins
without upbraiding." St Augustine, Cassiodore, and Gregory
make a further observation upon that place of the 32d Psalm :

I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord;


and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin ; that God, upon
the only promise and purpose of making this confession, did
"
Mark," saith Gregory, " how great the
2}
forgive the sin.
vital indulgence, how
swiftness is of this great the com-
mendation of God's mercy, that pardon should accompany
is

the very desire of him that is about to confess, before that

repentance do come to afflict him; and remission should


come to the heart, before that confession did break forth

by the voice." So St Basil, upon those other words of the


Psalmist, / have roared by reason of the disquietness of my
maketh " 22
do
heart, (Psalm xxxviii. 8), this paraphrase: I
19 21
Antiq. lib. Canon. LXVI. titulorum, Attende quanta sit indulgentiac vi-
MS. in. Bibliotheca Cottoniana. talis velocitas, quanta misericordiae Dei
20
Quis est qui non possit suppliciter commendatio: ut confitentis desiderium
dicere, Peccatum meum cognitum tibi comitetur venia, antequam ad cruciatum
feci, et injustitiam meam non operui, ut perveniat pcenitentia ; ante remissio ad cor
per hanc confessionem etiam illud confi- perveniat, quam confessio in vocem erum-
denter subjungere mereatur : Et tu remi-
pat. Greg. Exposit. ii. Psal. Penitential.
sisti impietatem cordis mei ? Quod si 22
Ou yap '/i/a TOIS iroXAoTs
verecundia retrahente revelare ea coram OIS \ei\effiv eofjio\oyovfjLai.
hominibus erubescis, illi, quern latere non evdov oe ev auTrj TIJ Kapdia, TO 5/j.fj.a /JLVCOV,

possunt, confiteri ea jugi supplicatione (TOl fJLOVta TU) f3\C1TOVTl TO &V KpVTTTU) TOUS
non desinas, ac dicere, Iniquitatem meam ev epavTW rrTcva.yp.ovs firideiKvvw, v

ego cognosco, et peccatum meum contra Qv&e yap fiaKpaw /not


me est semper tibi soli peccavi, et
:
\6ywv 'Xpeio. t)y irpos TIJV
malum coram te feci qui et absque ullius
:
yap oi 0-Tevay/j.oi TT;S KapSias
verecundiae publicatione curare, et sine KUI oi diro fiaQovs
,

improperio peccata donare consuevit. \l/vxn<i irpos o-t TQV Oeoi/


Jo. Cassian. Collat. xx. cap. 8. 65vpnoL Das. in Psal. xxxviii.
80 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

not confess with my that I


may manifest myself unto
lips,
many ; but inwardly in my very heart, shutting mine eyes,
to thee who seest the things that are in secret, do I
alone
shew groans, roaring within myself.
my For the groans of
my heart sufficed for a confession, and the lamentations sent
to thee
my God from the depth of my soul."
And as St Basil maketh the groans of the heart to be
a sufficient confession, so doth St Ambrose the tears of the
" 23 " do wash the
penitent. Tears," sin, which
saith he,
the voice ashamed to confess.
is
Weeping doth provide
both for pardon and for shamefacedness tears do speak our :

fault without horror tears do confess our crime without


;

offence of our shamefacedness." From whence he that


glosseth upon Gratian, who hath inserted these words of
St Ambrose into his collection of the Decrees, doth infer,
that " 2l
if for shame a man will not confess, tears alone do
blot out his sin." Maximus Taurinensis folio weth St Ambrose
herein almost verbatim. " The 25 " washeth
tear," saith he,
the sin, which the voice is ashamed to confess. Tears there-
fore do equally provide both for our shamefacedness and for
our health they neither blush in asking, and they obtain in
:

requesting." Lastly, Prosper, speaking of sins committed by


<c 26
such as are in the ministry, writeth thus :
They shall
more appease God, who being not convicted by human
easily
judgment, do of their own accord acknowledge their offence ;
who either do discover it
by their own confessions, or, others
not knowing what they are in secret, do themselves give
sentence of voluntary excommunication upon themselves;

23
Lavant lacrymee delictum, quod Petri, Tom. v. Biblioth. Patr. part. i.

voce pudor est confiteri. Et venise fletus p. 21. edit. Colon.


consulunt et verecundiae lacrymae sine :
26
Deum sibi facilius placabunt illi, qui
horrore culpam loquuntur
lacrymae ; non humano convicti judicio, sed ultro
crimen sine offensione verecundiae con- crimen agnoscunt ; qui aut propriis illud
fitentur. Ambros. lib. x. Comment, in confessionibus produnt, aut nescientibus
Luc. cap. xxii. aliis quales occulti sunt, ipsi in se volun-
24
Unde etsi propter pudorem nolit quis tariae excommunicationis sententiam fe-

confiteri, solas lacrymae delent peccata. runt, et ab altari, cui ministrabant, non
Gloss, de Pcenit. Distinct, i. cap. 2. La- animo sed officio separati, vitam tanquam
crymae. mortuam plangunt; certi, quod recon-
25
Lavat lacryma delictum, quod voce ciliato sibi efficacis prenitentiae fructibus

pudor est confiteri. Lacrymse ergo vere- Deo, non solum amissa lecipiant, sed
cundias consulunt pariter et saluti; nee effecti, ad
etiam cives supernse civitatis
erubescunt in petendo, et impetrant in gaudia sempiterna perveniant. Prosper,
rogando. Maxim. Homil. de Penitent. de Vita Contemplative, lib. ii. cap. 7.
OF CONFESSION.

and being separated (not in mind, but in office) from the


altar to which they did minister, do lament their life as dead,

assuring themselves, that God being reconciled unto them


by the fruits of effectual repentance, they shall not only
receive what they have lost, but also, being made citizens of
that city which is above, they shall come to everlasting joys."

By this it appeareth, that the ancient Fathers did not think


that the remission of sins was so tied unto external confession,
that a man might from God, if he
not look for salvation
concealed his faults from man ; but that inward contrition,
and confession made to God alone, was sufficient in this case.
Otherwise, neither they nor we do debar men from opening
their grievances unto the physicians of their souls, either for
their better information in the true state of their disease, or
for the quieting of their troubled consciences, or for receiving
further direction from them out of God's word, both for the

recovery of their present sickness, and for the prevention


of the like danger in time to come.
" 27
If I shall
sin, although it be in any small offence,
and my thought do consume me, and accuse me, saying,
Why hast thou sinned ? what shall I do ?" said a brother
once to Abbot Arsenius. The old man answered, " What-
soever hour a man shall fall into a fault, and shall say from
his heart, Lord God, I have sinned, grant me pardon, that
consumption of thought or heaviness shall cease forthwith."
And it was as good a remedy as could be prescribed for a
green wound, to take it in hand presently, to present it to
the view of our heavenly Physician, 28 to prevent Satan by
29
taking his office, as it were, out of his hand, and accusing

27
Si peccavero, etiam in quocunque accusatorem nullum timebis. Ambr. de
minuto peccato, et consumit me cogitatio Poenitent. lib. ii. cap. 17- Mj ydp GV,
mea, et arguit me, dicens, Quare peccasti ? ffavTov edv /utj etTTfjs dft.a.pTU>\6v, OVK
quid faciam ? Respondit senex, Quacunque e'xeisKaTriyopov TOW f>id(3o\ov irpoXafic ;

hora ceciderit homo in culpam, et dixerit Kdi (ipiraaov avTOv TO di<o/j.a, TO KCLTIJ-
ex corde, Domine Deus peccavi, indulge yopelv. TI ovv ou 7r/ooXa/i/3a'weis O.VTOV, Kai
mihi ; mox cessabit cogitationis vel tristitiae A.e'yets TJJW dfMapTiav, /cat e)~a\ei<peis TO
ilia consumptio. Respons. Patr. ./Egypt, i6a> OTL TOIOVTOV
a Paschasio diacono Latine vers. cap. 11. t?xei triyfjo-at /ujj duvdpevov ; Chrysost.
28
Novit omnia Dominus, sed exspectat de Poenit. Serm. in. Tom. vi. edit. Savil.

vocem tuam; non ut puniat, sed ut ig- p. 779.


29
noscat non vult ut insultet tibi Diabolus,
:
Aeye <rv TCCS aVo/utas crov ir/ow-ros,

etcelantem peccata tua arguat. Praeveni two ot/zia>0?7. LXX. in Esa. XLiii. 26,
accusatorem tuum si te ipse accusaveris,
: et Proverb, xviii. I/.

F
82 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

ourselves first, that we may be justified. But when it is


not taken in time, but suffered to fester and rankle, the cure
will not now prove to be so
easy ; it being found true by
often experience, that thewounded conscience will still pinch
grievously, notwithstanding the confession made unto God
in secret. At such a time as this then, where the sinner
can find no ease at home, what should he do but use the
30
best means he can to find it abroad ? /s there no balm in
Gilead? is there no physician there ? No doubt but God
hath provided both the one and the other for recovering of
the health of the daughter of his people ; and St James hath
31
herein given us this direction Confess your faults one to :

another, and pray one for another^ that ye may be healed.

According which prescription Gregory Nysseri, toward the


to
end of his sermon of repentance, useth this exhortation to
the sinner: " 32 Be sensible of the disease wherewith thou art
taken, afflict thyself as much as thou canst. Seek also the
mourning of thy entirely affected brethren to help thee unto
liberty. Shew me thy bitter and abundant tears, that I may
also mingle mine therewith. Take likewise the priest for a
partner of thine affliction, as thy Father. For who is it that
so falsely obtaineth the name of a father, or hath so adaman-
tine a soul, that he will not condole with his son's lamenting ?
Shew unto him without blushing the things that were kept
close ; discover the secrets of thy soul, as shewing thy hidden
disease unto thy physician. He will have care both of thy
credit and of thy cure."
was no part of his meaning to advise us that we should
It
ourselves in this manner unto
open every hedge-priest; as if
there were a virtue generally annexed to the order, that upon
confession made, and absolution received from any of that
rank, all should be straightmade up but he would have us :

30 Jerem. viii. 22. Tepa. TIS yap oura)9 iraTrjp \ffcvd(ovv/JLO<>-,

i] TijV \lsvxnv dSafJuivrLvos, a5s jurj orvvoSu-


31
Jam. v. 16.
pearfiai TXHS TC/CVOIS AuTroi/yuei/ois ;
&c.
52
Eiat<r6jjTos yevov Trpos TI}V irepi- 8elov auTw dvepvQpidcrTios -ra /ce/c/ou/x-
<re votrov. cruvrpiij/ov (TCLVTOV oaov /ueva. yv/uLvaxrov Ta TT;
<Js iarpta 7ra'6os S
7T61/00S ftorjQoVV (701 TTjOOS TTjV eXeU06|Oiai/. aOros eirt/ieAijo-eTai /cat TT?S
<Seioy fj.oL TTiKpov crov /cat 5avJfiAes TO z/jjs TVS depaTreias. Greg. Nyssen.
/cat

ddicpvov, 'iva /u/|fa> /cat TO e/idy. Aa'/3e /cat de Poenitent. in Operum Appendice, edit.
TOV iepea KOIVMVOV TJ/S 0\(ij>eios, tos TTCL- Paris, ann. 1618. p. 175, 176.
IV. OF CONFESSION.

communicate our case both to such Christian brethren, and to


such a ghostly father, as had skill in physic of this kind, and
out of a fellow-feeling of our grief would apply themselves to
our recovery. <c33
Therefore, saith Origen, look about thee
diligently unto whom thou oughtest to confess thy sin.
Try
firstthe physician, unto whom thou oughtest to declare the
cause of thy malady, who knoweth to be weak with him that is
weak, to weep with him that weepeth, who understandeth the
discipline of condoling and compassionating ; that so at length,
if he shall
say any thing, who hath first shewed himself to be
both a skilful physician and a merciful, or if he shall give
any
counsel, thou mayest do and follow it." For, as St Basil well
' C34
noteth, the very same course is to be held in the confession
of sins, which is in the opening of the diseases of the
body.
As men therefore do not discover the diseases of their
body to
all, nor to every sort of people, but to those that are skilful in
the cure thereof; even so ought the confession of our sins to
be made unto such as are able to cure them,
according to that
which is written, Ye that are strong bear the infirmities
of
the weak, that is, take them away by your
diligence." He
requireth care and diligence in performance of the cure ; being
ignorant, good man, of that new compendious method of heal-
ing, invented by our Roman Paracelsians, whereby a man
' <35
in confession of attrite is made contrite virtue of the
by
keys;" that the sinner need put his ghostly father to no
further trouble than this, Speak the word only, and I shall be
healed. And this is that sacramental confession devised of late
by the priests of Rome; which they notwithstanding would
fain father upon St Peter, from whom the Church of Rome, as

13
Tantummodo circumspice diligen- TOV <raj/LiaT05 oil TrdorLV
tius, cui debeas confiteri peccatum tuum.
Proba prius medicum, cui debeas causam T/S TOVTWV depaTTeias' ovTta
languoris exponere, qui sciat infirmari Koi efcayopevo-LS TWV ct/ia/OTtj^iaTwv yivf-
i]

cum infirmante, flere cum flente, qui <r6ai (xfreiXei. eiriTtav ovva^viav Qepairev-
condolendi et compatiendi noverit disci- etv, Kara TO yeypa/JL/mevov, 'Y/tiels ol 8vva-
plinam ; ut ita demum, si quid ille dixerit, TOI, TCC a<r0ej/tJ/uaTa Ttav d&vvaTtav ftacrrd-
qui se prius et eruditum medicum osten- eT6, TovrearTi, aipT oid TT/S eTTi/ueXe/as.
derit et misericordem, si quid consilii Basil, in Regul. brevioribus, Resp. 229.
35
dederit, facias et sequaris. Grig, in Psal. Secundum Archiepisc. imo sanctum
xxxvii. Horn. n. Thomam, et alios Theologos, in confes-
4
'H elfayo/oeueris TUJV sione fit
quis de attrito contritus virtute
TOVTOV <?x et '''vv Xoyoi/, ov tyci JJ e7ri clavium. Summa Sylvestrina, de Confess.
riav aru)[Jia.TiKU)V -rraOwj/. cos ovu TO. Sacramental, cap. 1. sect. 1.

F2
84 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

" 36 that
they would have us believe, received this instruction:
if
envy, or infidelity, or any other evil did secretly creep into
any man's heart, he who had care of his own soul should not
be ashamed to confess those things unto him who had the over-
sight over him ; that by God's word and wholesome counsel
he might be cured by him." And so indeed we read in the
apocryphal Epistle of Clement, pretended to be written unto
St James, the brother of our Lord ; where in the several edi-
tions of Crab, Sichardus, Venradius, Surius, Nicholinus, and

Binius, we find this note also laid down in the margin ; Nota
de confessione sacramentali, " Mark this of sacramental con-
37
fession." But their own Maldonat would have taught them
that this note was not worth the marking: forasmuch as the

proper end of sacramental confession is the obtaining of remis-


sion of sinsby virtue of the keys of the Church; whereas
the end of the confession here said to be commended by
St Peter, was the obtaining of counsel out of God's word
for the remedy of sins. Which kind of medicinal con-
fession we well approve of, and acknowledge to have been

ordinarily prescribed by the ancient Fathers for the cure of


secret sins.
For as for notorious offences, which bred open scandal,
private confession was not thought sufficient ; but there was
further required public acknowledgement of the fault, and
the solemn use of the keys for the reconciliation of the peni-
tent.
" ^ If do not only redound to his own evil, but
his sin
also unto much
scandal of others, and the Bishop thinketh
it to be expedient for the profit of the Church, let him not
refuse to perform his penance in the knowledge of many, or of
the whole people also ; let him not resist, let him not by his
shamefacedness add swelling to his deadly and mortal wound,"
saith St Augustine. And more largely in another place ;
where he meeteth with the objection of the sufficiency of

36
Quod si forte alicujus cor vel livor, ejus malo, sed etiam in tanto scandalo
vel infidelitas, vel aliquod malum latenter est aliorum, atque hoc expedite utilitati

irrepserit ; non erubescat, qui animae suae Ecclesiae videtur Antistiti, in notitia
curam huic qui praeest,
gerit, confiteri haec
multorum vel etiam totius plebis agere
ut ab ipso per verbum Dei et consilium poenitentiam non recuset; non resistat,
salubre curetur. Clem. Epist. i. non lethali et mortiferae plagae per pudo-
37 Maldonat. Disputat. de Sacrament. rem addat tumorem. August, in lib. de
Tom. ii. de Confessionis Origine, cap. 2. Pcenitentia, quae postrema est Homilia
38
Si peccatum ejus non sol am in gravi ex L. in x. Tom.
IV.]
OF CONFESSION. 85

internal repentance in this manner: " 39 Let no man say unto


himself, I do it secretly, I do it before God God who par- ;

doneth me doth know that I do it in my heart. Is it there-


fore said without cause, Whatsoever you shall loose on earth,
shall be loosed in heaven ? Are the keys therefore without
cause given unto the Church of God? do we frustrate the

Gospel of God? do we frustrate the words of Christ? do


we promise that to you which he denieth you ? do we not
deceive you ? Job saith, If I was abashed to confess my sins
in the sight of the people. So just a man of God's rich trea-
sure, who was tried in such a furnace, saith thus and doth the ;

child of pestilence withstand me, and is ashamed to bow his


knee under the blessing of God? That which the emperor
was not ashamed to do, is he ashamed of, who is not as much
as a senator, but only a simple courtier ? O proud neck ! O
crooked mind! Perhaps, nay it not to be doubted, it was
is

for this reason, God would that Theodosius the Emperor


should do public penance in the sight of the people, especially
because his sin could not be concealed : and is a senator
ashamed of that whereof the emperor was not ashamed ? is
he ashamed of that who is no senator, but a courtier only,
whereof the emperor was not ashamed ? Is one of the vulgar
sort or a trader ashamed of that whereof the emperor was
not ashamed ? What pride is this ? Were not this alone suffi-

cient to bring them to hell, although no adultery had been


committed ?" Thus far St Augustine concerning the necessity
of public repentance for known offences which being in tract :

of time disused in some places, long after this the 40 Bishops

39 Nemo sibi dicat, Occulte ago, apud tortuosa !


Fortassis, imo quod non dubita-
Deum ago ; novit Deus qui mihi ignoscit, tur, propterea Deus voluit ut Theodosius

quia in corde ago. Ergo sine causa dictum Imperator ageret poenitentiam publicam
est, Quae solveritis in terra, soluta eruntin in conspectu populi,maxime quia pecca-
coelo ? ergo sine causa sunt claves dataa tum ejus celari non potuit: et erubescit
ecclesiae Dei ? frustramus Evangelium Senator, quod non erubuit Imperator?
Dei ? frustramus verba Christi ? promit- erubescit nee Senator sed tantum Curialis,
timus vobis quod negat ? nonne vos
ille quod non erubuit Imperator ? Erubescit

decipimus ? Job dicit Si erubui in con-


:
plebeius sive negociator, quod non erubuit
spectu populi confiteri peccata mea. Talis Imperator ? Quae ista superbia est ? Non-
Justus thesauri divini obryzi, tali camino ne sola sufficeret gehennae, etiamsi adul-
probatus, ista dicit et resistit mihi filius
: terium nullum esset? Id. Horn. XLIX.
pestilentise, et erubescit genu figere sub Ex. 50. cap. 3.
benedictione Dei ? Quod non erubuit Concil. Arelat. iv. cap. 26, et Cabi-
Imperator, erubescit nee Senator sed tan- !
lonens. n. cap. 25.
turn Curialis ? Superba cervix, mens I
86 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAT.

of France, by the assistance of Charles the Great, caused it


to be brought into use
again according to the order of the
old Canons.
Neither is it here to be omitted, that in the time of
the more ancient Fathers this strict discipline was not so
restrained to the censure of public crimes ; but that private
transgressions also were sometimes brought within the compass
of it. For whereas at first public confession was enjoined
only for public offences ; men afterwards discerning what
great benefit redounded to the penitents thereby, (as well for
the subduing of the stubbornness of their hard hearts, and the

furthering of their deeper humiliation, as for their raising up


again by those sensible comforts which they received by the
public prayers of the congregation and the use of the keys;)
some men, I say, discerning this, and finding their own con-
sciences burdened with the like sins, which, being carried in

secrecy, were not subject to the censures of the Church ; to


the end they might obtain the like consolation and quiet of
mind, did voluntarily submit themselves to the Church's dis-

cipline herein, and undergo the burden of public confession


and penance. This appeareth by Origen in his second
Homily upon the 37th Psalm, Tertullian in his book de
Poenitentia, chap. 9, St Cyprian in his Treatise de Lapsis,
sect. 23, (or 11, according to Pamelius's distinction), St
Ambrose in his first book de Pcenitentia, chap. 16, and others.
And to the end that this publication of secret faults might
be performed in the best manner, some prudent minister was
first of all made acquainted therewith by whose direction ;

the delinquent might understand what sins were fit to be

brought to the public notice of the Church, and in what


manner the penance was to be performed for them. There-
fore Origen advise, as we heard, that one should use
did
great care in making choice of a good and skilful phy-
sician, to whom he should disclose his grief in this kind.
And " 41 if he understand," saith he, " and foresee that thy
diseaseis such as
ought to be declared in the assembly of the
whole Church, and cured there, whereby per ad venture both

41 multa hoc
Si intellexerit et praeviderit talem runt, et tu ipse facile sanari ;

esse languorem tuum, qui in conventu deliberatione et satis perito medici illius
totius ecclesiae exponi debeat et curari, consilio procurandum est. Origen. in
ex quo fortassis et ceteri aedificari pote- Psal. xxx vii. Horn. n.
IV.]
01 CONFESSION.

others may be edified, and thou thyself more easily healed;


with much deliberation, and by the very skilful counsel of
that physician,must this be done."
But within a while, shortly after the persecution raised
in the days of Decius the Emperor, it was no longer left
free to the penitent to make choice of his ghostly father ;

but by the general consent of the bishops it was ordained,


that in every church one certain discreet minister should
be appointed to receive the confessions of such as relapsed
into sin after Baptism. This is that addition which 42 Socrates,
in his Ecclesiastical History, noteth to have been then made
unto the penitential canon, and to have been observed by
the governors of the Church for a long time ; until at length
in the time of Nectarius bishop of Constantinople, which was
about one hundred and forty years after the persecution of
Decius, upon occasion of an infamy drawn upon the clergy
by the confession of a gentlewoman, defiled by a deacon in
that city, it was
thought fit it should be abolished ; and that
43
liberty should be given unto every one, upon the private
examination of his own conscience, to resort to the holy
Communion. Which was agreeable both to the rule of the
Apostle, 1 Cor. xi. 28, Let a man examine himself, and so
let him
eat of that bread, and drink of that cup ; and to
the judgment of the more ancient Fathers; as appeareth
by Clemens Alexandrinus, who accounteth a man's own con-
44
science to be his best director in this case howsoever our :

45
new masters of Trent have not only determined, that sacra-
mental confession must necessarily be premised before the
receiving of the Eucharist ; but also have pronounced them to
be excommunicate ipso facto, that shall presume to teach the
contrary.
The case then, if these men's censures were ought worth,
would go hard with Nectarius and all the Bishops that fol-
lowed him but especially with St John Chrysostom, who was
;

his immediate successor in the See of Constantinople. For

42
Ot eiriffKOTToi TU>V KK\iiariiav KO.VOVL /cat Qappelv Svvai.ro, Koivcovelv
TOV TTpea-fivTepou TOV e-Tri TJ/S /ueraj/oias . Sozomen. Histor. lib. vii.

irpovedeaav. Socrat. Hist. lib. V. cap. cap. 16.


44
19. 'A/tnorrt) yap IT/DOS -rjV aKpiftrj aipeaiv
43
T<O iu> avv- TC Kal <pvyi]v jj (rui/ei<5j<ris. Clement.
/j.ucrTi}piu)v fA.CTe)(iv. Socrat. Alexandr. lib. i. Strom.
ib. pclv eKacrTov, 5s av CUVTW 45
Concil. Trident. Sess. xm. Can. 11.
88 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAF.

thus doth he expound that place of the Apostle " 46 Let


every :

one examine himself, and then let him come. He doth not
bid one man to examine another, but every one himself;
making the judgment private, and the trial without wit-
nesses ;" and in the end of his second
Homily of fasting
(which in others is the eighth de Pcenitentia), frameth his
exhortation accordingly: " 47 Within thy conscience, none
being present but God, who seeth all things, enter thou into
judgment, and into a search of thy sins, and recounting thy
whole life, bring thy sins unto judgment in thy mind reform :

thy excesses, and so with a pure conscience draw near to that


sacred Table, and partake of that holy Sacrifice." Yet in
another place he deeply chargeth ministers not to admit known
offenders unto the Communion. " But 48 if
one," saith he,
" be that he is an evil after that he hath used
ignorant person
much diligence therein, he is not to be blamed; for these things
are spoken by me of such as are known." And we find both
in him and in the practice of the times following, that the
order of public penance was not wholly taken away ; but
according to the ancient discipline established by the Apostles
in the Church, open offenders were openly censured, and

pressed to make public confession of their faults. Whereby


it is manifest that the
liberty brought in by Nectarius, of
not resorting to any penitentiary, respected the disclosing of
secret sins only ; such as that foul one was, from whence the

public scandal arose, which gave occasion to the repeal of


the former constitution. For to suffer open and notorious
crimes committed in the Church to pass without control, was
not a mean to prevent but to augment scandals ; nay, the
ready way to make the house of God a den of thieves.
Two observations more I will add upon this part of the

history. The one, that the abrogation of this Canon sheweth

46 TOV vov TO Kpvrr\piov aye


Ao/a/uaeTO) de avTov e/cao-TOS, KO.L yi6[j.evos, viro
TOTS irpoairta. Kal ov\ e-repov ere/0 w Ta dfi.apTrifJia.Ta., fiiopOov TCC TT\r}fJLfJLe\ijfj.a-

KeXeveL doKifidorai, d\\' avTov eavTov, Ta, Kal yueTa KaQapou TOV arvveiSoTos
O'VTCO

ddrjfJiO<rievTOV TTOLWV TO diKa<rTi]piov, Tijs te/oas aiTTOV TpaTret}<s, Kal TT)<S ayfas

dfidpTvpov TOV e\ey-%ov. Chrysost. in peTeye Butrias. Id. Tom. vi. Savil. p. 83J.
1 Cor. xi. Homil. xxvin. 18
Et de i]yvor)(T TIS TOV <f)av\ov iroXAa
47 "~Evdov ev Tto trvveiSoTL, /xr^ei/os vepiepyaffdfj.evo's, ovSev ey/cXrjjua' TOVTU
TTapovTO's, Tr\r}v TOV TrdvTa opiavTos Qeov, yap TWV SqXoov e'ipriTai.
fjLoi irepi Id. in
TTOIOV Trjv Kpiariv Kal TWV rifj.apT^p.evwv fine Horn. LXXXII. in Matth. edit. Graec.
,
Kal irdvTa TOV fiiov dva\o- vel LXXXIII. Latin.
IV.]
OF CONFESSION. 89

that the form of confession used by the ancient was canonical,


that is, appertaining to that external discipline of the Church,
which upon just occasion might be altered ; and not sacra-
mental and of perpetual right, which is that our Jesuits
stand for. The other, that the course taken herein by
Nectarius was not only approved by St Chrysostom, who
succeeded him at Constantinople, but 49 generally in a manner
by the Catholic Bishops of other places; howsoever the
Arians and the rest of the sectaries (the Novatians only
excepted, who from the beginning would not admit the
discipline used in the Church for the reconciliation of peni-

tents,) retained still the former usage, as by the relation of


Socrates and Sozomen more fully may appear. And there-
fore, when within some 21 years after the time wherein they
finished their histories, and about 70 after that the publica-
tion of secret offences began to be abolished by Nectarius,
certain in Italy did so do their penance, that they caused
a writing to be publicly read, containing a profession of their
several sins ; Leo, who at that time was Bishop of Rome,
50
gave order, that by all means that course should be broken
" forasmuch as it was sufficient that the
off, guilt of men^s
consciences should be declared in secret confession to the
For although," " the of
priests alone. saith he, fulness
faith may seem to be laudable, which for the fear of God
doth not fear to blush before men ; yet because all men's
sinsare not of that kind, that they may not fear to publish
such of them as require repentance, let so inconvenient a
custom be removed ; lest many be driven away from the
remedies of repentance, while either they are ashamed or
afraid to disclose their deeds unto their enemies, whereby

they may be drawn within the peril of the laws. For that

49
'EmjcoXou6jj<rcti/ de <r\e&6v ol Trdwroiv improbabilis consuetude; ne multi a
iri(Tiyjroi. Sozom. lib. vii. cap. 16. pcenitentiae remediis arceantur, dum aut
60 Ne de singulorum peccatorum genere erubescunt aut metuunt inimicis suis sua
libellis scripta professio
publice recitetur; facta reserare, quibus possint legum con-
cum reatus conscientiarum sufficiat solis stitutione percelli. Sufficit enim ilia con-
sacerdotibus indicari confessione secreta. fessio, quae primum Deo offertur, turn
Quamvis enim plenitude fidei videatur etiam sacerdoti, qui pro delictis pomiten-
Dei timorem
esse laudabilis, quae propter tium precator accedit. Tune enim demum
apud homines erubescere non veretur; plures ad pcenitentiam poterunt provocari,
tamen quia non omnium hujusmodi sunt i
si populi auribus non publicetur conscien-
peccata, ut ea, quae pccnitentiam poscunt, tia confitentis. Leo Epist. LXXX. ad
non timeant publicare, removeatur tarn Episcopos Campaniae, Samnii et Piceni.
90 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

confession is sufficient which is offered first unto God, and


then unto the priest, who cometh as an intercessor for the
sins of the penitent. For then at length more may be pro-
voked to repentance, if that the conscience of him who con-
fesseth be not published to the ears of the people."

By this place of Leo we may easily understand how, upon


the removal of public confession of secret faults, (together with
the private made unto the penitentiary, which was adjoined
as a preparative thereunto,) auricular confession began to be
substituted in the room thereof; to the end that by this
means more might be drawn on to this exercise of repentance ;

the impediments of shame and fear, which accompanied the


former practice, being taken out of the way. For indeed
the shame of this public penance was such, that in the time
of Tertullian, when this discipline was thought most needful
for the Church, it was strongly " 51 presumed, that many
did either shun this work as a publication of themselves,
or deferred it from day to day, being more mindful," as he
" of their shame than of their salvation."
saith, Nay, St
Ambrose observed, that " 52 some who for fear of the punish-
ment in the other world, being conscious to themselves of
their sins, did here desire their penance, were yet for shame
of their public supplication drawn back after they had
received it." Therefore the conjecture of 53 Rhenanus is
not to be contemned, that from this public confession the
private took its original ; which by Stapleton, (in his For-
tress, part ii. chap. 4), is positively delivered in this manner :

" Afterward this


open and sharp penance was brought to
the private and particular confession now used, principally
for the lewdness of the common lay-Christians, which in this

open confession began at length to mock and insult at their


brethren's simplicity and devotion." Although it may seem
53
51
Plerosque tamen hoc opus ut publi- Porro non aliam ob causam complu-
cationem sui aut suffugere, aut de die in rium hie testimoniis usi sumus, quam ne
diem differre, praesumo; pudoris magis quis admiretur Tertullianum declancularia
memores quam salutis. Tertul. de Pcenit. ista admissorum confessione nihil locu-
cap. 10. tum: quse, quantum conjicimus, nata
52
Nam plerique futuri supplicii metu, est ex ista exomologesi per ultroneam
peccatorum suorum conscii, pcenitentiam hominum pietatem, ut occultorum pec-
petunt; et cum acceperint, publicae sup- catorum esset et exomologesis occulta.
plicationis revocantur pudore. Hi videntur Nee enim usquam praeceptam olim legi-
malorum petisse pcenitentiam, agere bono- mus. B. Rhenan. Argument, in lib.

rum. Ambr. de Pcenitent. lib. ii. cap. 9. Tertul. dc Pcenit.


OK CONFESSION.
IV.]

by that which is written by "Origen, that the seeds of this

lewdness began to sprout long before; howsoever "Tertul-


lian imagined, that no member of the Church would be so

ungracious as to commit such folly.


The
public confession therefore of secret sins being thus
abolished by Nectarius first, for the scandal that came there-

by unto and by the rest of the Catholic Bishops after


others,
him, for the reproach and danger whereunto the penitents
by this means were laid open ; private confession was so
brought in to supply the defect thereof, that it was accounted
no more sacramental, nor esteemed, at least generally, to be
of more necessity for the obtaining of remission of sins, than
that other. So that whatsoever order afterward was taken
herein, may well be judged to have had the nature of a

temporal law, which, according to the definition of St


u56
Augustine, although it be just, yet in time it may be
11

justly also changed. Nay, we find that Lawrence, Bishop


of Novaria, in his Homily de Poenitentia, doth resolutely
determine, that for obtaining remission of sins a man needeth
not to resort unto any priest, but that his own internal
sufficient for that matter. " saith
57
repentance is God," he,
"
baptism hath appointed thy remedy within thyself,
after
he hath put remission in thine own power, that thou needest
not seek a priest when thy necessity requireth ; but thou
thyself now, as a skilful and plain master, mayest amend
thine error within thyself, and wash away thy sin by repent-
u58 He hath
ance." given unto thee," saith another, some-

54 56
Si ergo hujusmodi homo, tnemor de- Appellemus istam legem, si placet,
licti sui, confiteatur quae commisit, et temporalem, quae quam vis justa sit, com-
humana confusione parvi pendat eos qui mutari tamen per tempora juste potest.
exprobrant eum confitentem, et notant vel August, de lib. Arbitr. lib. i. cap. 6.
Origen. in PsaL xxxvii. baptisma remedium tuum in
67 Post
irrident, &c.
Homil. n. teipso statuit, remissionem in arbitrio tuo
55
Certe periculum ejus tune si forte
posuit, ut non quseras sacerdotem cum
onerosum est, cum
penes insultaturos in necessitas flagitaverit ; sed ipse jam ac si
risiloquio consistit, ubi de alterius ruina scitus perspicuusque magister, errorem
alter attollitur, ubi prostrato superscendi- tuum intra te emendes, et peccatum tuum
tur. Ceterum inter fratres atque conser- poenitudine abluas. Laur. Novar. Tom.
ves, ubi communis spes, metus, gaudium, vi. Biblioth. Patr. part i. p. 337. edit.
dolor, passio; quid tuos aliud quam te Colon.
58
opinaris ? Quid consortes casuum tuorum Soi &&<oKe Ttjy cfcovfftav TOV Sea-fielv
ut plausores fugis ? Non potest corpus dc KOI \vetv. cravrov eStjffai Trj aeipa. T^S
unius membri vexatione laetum agerc. <pt\apyvpia^, aavrov \\HTOV
Tertullian. dc Pcenitent. cap. 9. T//S
92 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

what same " the


to the purpose, power of binding and
loosing. Thou hast bound thyself with the chain of the
love of wealth ;loose thyself with the injunction of the love
of poverty. Thou hast bound thyself with the furious
desire loose thyself with temperance.
of pleasures
; Thou
hast bound
thyself with the misbelief of Eunoinius ; loose
thyself with the religious embracing of the right faith/'*
And that we may see how variable men's judgments were
touching the matter of confession in the ages following, Bede
would have us " 59 confess our daily and light sins one unto
another, but open the uncleanness of the greater leprosy to
the priest." Alcuinus, not long after him, would have us
" 60
we can remember." Others were
confess all the sins that
of another mind. For some (as it appeareth by the writings
of the same 61 Alcuinus, and of 62 Haymo) would not confess
their sins to the but " 63 said it was sufficient for
priest;
them that they did confess their sins to God alone;" pro-
vided always, that they ceased from those sins for the time
to come. Others confessed their sins unto the priests, but
" 64
not fully;" as may be seen in the council of Cavaillon,
held in the days of Charles the Great: where, though
the Fathers think that this had " need to be amended ;"
yet they freely acknowledge that it remained still a question,
whether men should only confess to God, or to the priests
also; and they themselves put this difference betwixt both
those confessions, that the one did properly serve for the
cure, the other for direction in what sort the repentance, and
so the cure, should be performed. Their words are these:

60 Volens dimittere omnia his qui in


IOV Tjooi/oiv, (rawrov \vcrov TTJ
ri* ffavTov e^ijtras Ty T&VVO/JLIOV se peccaverunt, confiteatur omnia peccata
LCt, GCLVTOV \uorov Ty TT;S 6p6o- sua, quae recordari potest. Alcuin. de
&>as Auctor Homiliae in
eu<re/3eta. Divin. Offic. cap. 13, in capite Jejunii.
61
illud, Quaecunque ligaveritis, &c. inter Id. Epist. xxvi.
62
opera Chrysostomi, Tom. vn. edit. Savil. Haymo. Halbeistatt. in Evangel.
p. 268. Dominic, xv. post Pentecost. Ad illud :

69
In hac sententia ilia debet esse discre- Ite ostendite vos sacerdotibus.
63
tio ; ut quotidiana leviaque peccata alter- Dicentes, sibi sufficere, ut soli Deo
utrum coaequalibus confiteamur, eorumque peccata sua confiteantur; si tamen ab
quotidiana credamus oratione salvari. ipsis peccatis in reliquo cessent. Haymo.
Porro gravioris leprae immunditiam juxta ut supra.
64
legem sacerdoti pandamus, atque ad ejus Sed et hoc emendatione egere per-
arbitrium, qualiter et quanto tempore speximus, quod quidam dum contitentur
jusserit, purificari curemus. Bed. in peccata sua sacerdotibus, non plene id
Jacob, v. faciunt. Concil. Cabilon. n. cap. 32.
iv J
OF CONFESSION. 93

" 65
Some say that they ought to confess their sins only unto
God, and some think that they are to be confessed unto the

priests:both of which, not without great fruit, is practised


within the holy Church. Namely thus, that we both confess
our sins unto God, who is the forgiver of sins, (saying with
David / acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity
:

have I not hid. I said I will confess against myself my


transgressions unto the Lord : and thou forgavest the iniquity
of my sin :) and, according to the institution of the Apostle,
confess our sins one unto another, and pray one for another,
that we may be healed. The confession therefore which is
made unto God, purgeth sins ; but that which is made unto
the priest, teacheth in what sort those sins should be purged.
For God, the author and bestower of salvation and health,
giveth the same sometime by the invisible administration
11
of his power, sometime by the operation of physicians.
66
This Canon is cited by Gratian out of the Penitential
of Theodorus, Archbishop of Canterbury, but clogged with
some unnecessary additions. As when in the beginning
thereof it is made the 67 opinion of the Grecians, that sins
should be confessed only unto God ; and of the rest of the
Church, that they should be confessed to priests where those :

words, ut Grceci, in Gratian, seem unto Cardinal Bellarmine


" G8 to have
crept out of the margin into the text, and to

65 66
Quidam solummodo Deo confiteri Grat. de Poenit. Distinct, i. cap. ult.
debere dicunt peccata; quidam vero sacer- Quidam Deo.
67
dotibus confitenda esse percensent : quod Quidam Deo solummodo confiteri

utrumque non sine magno fructu intra debere peccata dicunt, ut Greed ; quidam
sanctam fit ecclesiam, ita duntaxat, ut et vero sacerdotibus confitenda esse percen-
Deo, qui remissor est peccatorum, con- sent, ut tola fere sancta ecclesia. Ibid.
fiteamur peccata nostra, (et cum David 68
Videtur irrepsisse in textum ex mar-
dicamus, Delictum meum cognitum tibi gine; et marginalem annotationem im-
feci, et injustitiam meam non abscondi : periti alicujus fuisse qui ex facto Nectarii
dixi, Conh'tebor adversum me injustitias sublatam omnino confessionem
collegit,
meas Domino, et tu remisisti impietatem sacramentalem apud Grascos. Nam alio-
peccati mei,) et secundum institutionem qui in ipso Capitulari Theodori, unde
Apostoli, Confiteamur alterutrum peccata canon ille descriptus est, non habentur
nostra, et oremus pro invicem ut salvemur. duse voces, ut Greed; neque etiam
illse

Confessio itaque quae Deo fit, purgat habentur in Concilio u. Cabilonensi,


peccata : ea vero quae sacerdoti fit, docet cap. 33. unde Theodorus Capitulum
qualiter ipsa purgentur peccata. Deus illud accepisse videtur sed nee Magister
:

namque, salutis et sanitatis auctor et largi- Sentent. in iv. lib. Dist. xvn. eandem
tor, plerumque hanc praebet suae potentia; sententiam adducens, addidit illud, ut
invisibili administratione, plerumque Greed. Bellar. de Pocnitent. lib. iii.
medicorum opera tione. Ibid. cap. 33. cap. 0.
94 ANSWER TO A- JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

have been a marginal annotation of some unskilful man, who


gathered by the fact of Nectarius, that sacramental con-
fession was wholly taken away among the Grecians. For
saith he, " in the Capitular itself of Theodorus,
11
otherwise,
whence that Canon was transcribed, those two words, ut
Grceci, are not to be had; nor are they also to be had in
the second Council of Cavaillon, c. 33, whence Theodorus
seemeth to have taken that chapter neither yet doth the :

Master of the sentences, in his 4th book and l?th distinction,


bringing in the same sentence, add those words, ut Greed"
But the Cardinal's conjecture of the translating of these
words out of the margin into the text of Gratian is of little
worth ; seeing we find them expressly laid down in the elder
69
collections of the decrees made by Burchardus and 70 Ivo;
from whence it is evident that Gratian borrowed this whole
chapter, as he hath done many a one beside. For as for
66
the Capitular itself of Theodorus, whence" the Cardinal too
" that Canon was transcribed ;" as if he had
boldly affirmeth
looked into the book himself; we are to know, that no such
Capitular of Theodorus is to be found only Burchardus and :

Ivo (in whom, as we said, those controverted words are


extant) set down this whole chapter as taken out of Theo-
dore's Penitential, and so misguided Gratian; for indeed
in Theodorus' Penitential, which I did lately transcribe out
of a most ancient copy kept in Sir Robert Cotton's treasury,
no part of that chapter can be seen ; nor yet any thing else
tending to the matter now in hand, this short sentence only
excepted, Confessionem suam Deo soli, si necesse est, licebit
" It is lawful that confession be made unto God
agere;
alone, if need require." And to suppose, as the Cardinal
doth, that Theodorus should take this chapter out of the
second council of Cavaillon, were an idle imagination ;
seeing it is well known that Theodore died Archbishop of
Canterbury year of our Lord 690, and the council
in the
of Cavaillon was held in the year 813, that is, 123 years
after the other's death. The truth is, he who made
the additions Capitularia of Charles the Great and
to the
Ludovicus Pius, gathered by Ansegisus and Benedict, trans-
71
lated this Canon out of that council into his collection :

69 71
Burchard. Decret. lib. xix. cap. 145. I Addit. in. cap. 31. edit. Pithsei et
7
Ivo, Decret. part. xv. cap, 155. | Lindenbrogii.
OF CONFESSION. 95

which Belial-mine, seemeth, having some way heard of,


as it

knew not to distinguish between those Capitularia and Theo-


dore's Penitential ; being herein as negligent as in his alle-

gation of the fourth book of the sentences


where the Master :

doth not bring in this sentence at all, but having among


other questions propounded this also for one,
""Whether
it be sufficient that a man confess his sins to God alone, or
whether he must confess to a priest," doth thereupon set
down the diversity of men's opinions touching that matter,
and saith, that " unto some it seemed to suffice if confession
were made to God only, without the judgment of the priest,
or the confession of the Church, because David said, / said
I will confess unto the Lord : he saith not, Unto the priest ;
and yet he sheweth that his sin was forgiven him." For in
these points, as the same author had before noted,
" 73 even the
learned were found to hold diversely ; because the doctors
seemed to deliver divers and almost contrary judgments
therein.
The
diverse sentences of the doctors touching this ques-
tion,whether external confession were necessary or not, are at
large laid down by Gratian ; who in the end leaveth the mat-
ter in and concludeth in this manner: " 74
suspense, Upon
what upon what strength of reasons both these
authorities, or
opinions are grounded, I have briefly laid open. But whether
of them we should rather cleave to, is reserved to the judg-
ment of the reader. For both of them have for their favourers
both wise and religious men." And so the matter rested un-
determined 1150 years after Christ; howsoever the Roman
correctors of Gratian do tell us, that now the case is altered,
and that " 75 it is most certain, and must be held for most

72 74
Utrum sufficiat peccata confiteri soli Quibus auctoritatibus vel quibus
Deo, an oporteat confiteri sacerdoti. Qui- rationum firmamentis utraque sententia
busdam visum est sufficere, si soli Deo fiat innitatur, in medium breviter exposuimus.
confessio sine judicio sacerdotali et con- Cui autem harum potius adhaerendum sit,
fessione ecclesiae, quia David dixit, Dixi, lectoris judicio reservatur. Utraque enim
Confitebor Domino, &c. non ait, Sacer- fautores habet sapientes et religiosos viros.
doti; et tameri remissum sibi peccatum De Prenit. Dist. i. cap. 89. Quamvis.
76
dicit. Petr. Lombard, lib. iv. Sentent. Certissimum est, et pro certissimo
Dist. xvn. habendum, peccati mortalis necessariam
73 In his enim etiam docti diversa sen- esse confessionem sacramentalem, eo modo
tire quia super his varia ac
inveniuntur ;
ac tempore adhibitam, quo in Concilio
pene adversa tradidisse videntur Doctores. Tridentino post alia Concilia est consti-
Ibid. tutum. Rom. Correct, ibid.
96 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

certain, that the sacramental confession of mortal sins is

necessary, used in that manner, and at such time, as in the


Council of Trent after other Councils it is appointed." But
the first Council wherein we find any thing determined

touching this necessity, is that of Lateran under Innocent


the Third, wherein we heard that transubstantiation was
established: for there itwas ordained, that " Omnis utrius-
que seoDus jidelis, every faithful one of either sex, being come
to years of discretion, should by himself alone, once in the

year at least, faithfully confess his sins unto his own priest ;
and endeavour according to his strength to fulfil the penance
enjoined unto him, receiving reverently at least at Easter
the Sacrament of the Eucharist otherwise, that both being
:

alive he should be kept from entering into the Church,


and being dead should want Christian burial." Since which
determination Thomas Aquinas, exposition of the
in his
text of the fourth book of the Sentences, distinct. 17, holdeth
77
the denial of the necessity of confession unto salvation to
be heresy which before that time, saith Bonaventure, in his
;

Disputations upon the same fourth book, was not heretical;


forasmuch as many Catholic doctors did hold contrary opinions
therein, as appeareth by Gratian.
78
But Medina will not admit by any means, that it
should be accounted " but would have it
strictly heresy ;"
that " it savours of And for this decree of con-
said, heresy."
fession tobe made once in the year, he saith, T9 that it " doth
not declare nor interpret any divine right of the thing, but
rather appointeth the time for confession." Durand thinketh
that it may be said, that this Statute containeth " 80 an
holy
76 78
Omnis utriusque sexus fidelis, post- Ideo dicendum, quod praefata assertio
quam ad annos discretionis pervenerit, non est stricte haeresis, sed sapit haeresim.
omnia sua solus peccata confiteatur fide- Jo. Medina, Tractat. n. de Confessione,
semel in anno, proprio sacer-
liter, saltern Quaest. iv.
doti; et injunctam sibi Poenitentiam stu-
79 Nam illud, quod illic dicitur de
deat pro viribus adimplere, suscipiens confessione semel in anno, non procedit
reverenter ad minus in Pascha Eucharistiae declarando, nee divinum jus interpre-
sacramentum, &c. alioquin et vivens ab tando, sed potius tempus confitendi in-
ingressu ecclesiae arceatur, et moriens stituendo. Id. ibid. Quaest. u.
Christiana careat sepultura. Concil. La- 80 In quo praemittitur exhortatio sancta
teran. cap. 21. et salubris de confessione facienda, et
77 de perceptione
Magister et Gratianus hoc pro opi- subjungitur praeceptum
nione ponunt. Sed nunc, post determina- Eucharistiae vallatum poena. Durand. in
tionem ecclesiae sub Inn. in. factam, lib. iv. Sentent. Distinct, xvn. Quaest.
haeresis reputanda est. Thorn. XIV.
IV.]
OF CONFESSION. 9?

and wholesome exhortation of making confession, and then


of the Eucharist, backed
adjoineth a precept of the receiving
with a penalty ;" or if both of them be precepts, that
" sl the
penalty respecteth only the precept of communicating
(of the transgression whereof knowledge may be taken), and
not the precept of confession ;" of the transgression whereof
the Church can take no certain notice, and therefore can

appoint no certain penalty for it. But howsoever, this we


are sure of, that the canonists afterward held no absolute
as unto a sacra-
necessity of obedience to be required therein,
mental institution ordained by Christ for obtaining remission
of sins ; but a canonical obedience only, as unto an useful
constitution of the Church. And therefore, where Gratian
in his first distinction de Pcenitentia had, in the 34th chapter
and the three next following, propounded the allegations
which made for them, who held 82 that men might obtain
pardon for their sins without any oral confession of them,
and then proceeded to the authorities which might seem to
make for the contrary opinion; Johannes Semeca, at the
beginning of that part, upon those words of Gratian, Alii
e contrario testantur, putteth to this gloss: "
83
From this
place until the section, His auctoritatibus, he allegeth for
the other part, that sin is not forgiven unto such as are of

years without confession of the mouth, which yet is false,"


saith he. But this free dealing of his did so displease Friar
Manrique, who, by the command of Pius Quintus, set out
a censure upon the glosses of the Canon Law, that he gave
" which
direction these words, yet is false," should be clean
blotted out. Which direction of his, notwithstanding, the
Roman correctors under Gregory xm. did not follow ; but
letting the words still stand, give them a check only with
this marginal annotation:
" 84 is most true, that without
Nay it
confession, in desire at least, the sin is not forgiven."

Ul
Et ob hoc posset rationabiliter videri Vide initium ejusdem Distinct, et Glos-
alicui, quod praedicta poena illius statuti Sunt enim.
saiu, ibid. verb.

respicit solum prseceptum de communione,


83
Ab hoc loco usque ad sect. His auctori-
de cujus transgressione constare potest, et tatibus, pro alia parte allegat, quod scilicet
non praeceptum de confessione. Idem adulto peccatum non dimittitur sine oris
ibid. confessione, quod tamen falsum est. Gloss.
88 84 Imo
Unde datur intelligi, quod etiam ore verissimum, sine confessione in
tacente veniam consequi possumus. De voto non dimitti peccatum. Rom. Correct.
Poenit. Dist. Convertimini. ibid, in
i. cap. 34. marg.
Q
98 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

In like manner, where the same Semeca holdeth it to


be the better opinion, that confession was " 85 ordained by
a certain tradition of the universal Church, rather than by
the authority of the new or old Testament," and inferreth
86
thereupon, that it is necessary among the Latins, but
" not the Greeks, because that tradition did not
among
spread to them;" Friar Manrique commandeth all that

passage to be blotted out; but the Roman correctors clap


this note upon the margin for an antidote u 87
Nay, con- :

fession was ordained by our Lord, and by God's law is

necessary to all that fall into mortal sin after baptism, as


well Greeks as Latins." And for this they quote only
the 14th Session of the Council Trent; where that
of

opinion is accursed in us, which was held two or three


hundred years ago by the men of their own religion,
among whom
88
Michael of Bononia, who was prior general
of the order of the Carmelites in the days of Pope Urban
the Sixth, doth conclude strongly out of their own received
" that confession is not
grounds, necessary for the obtaining
of the pardon of our sin." And Panormitan, the great
89
canonist, professeth that the opinion of Semeca doth much
please him, which referreth the original of confession to a
" " there
general tradition of the Church ; because," saith he,
is not
any clear authority which sheweth that God or Christ
did clearly ordain that confession should be made unto a
" 90
the canonists, following their first inter-
all
priest." Yea,
preter, say that confession was brought in only by the law
of the Church," and not by any divine precept, if we will
Maldonat who addeth " 91
believe ; notwithstanding, that this

85
Melius dicitur earn institutam fuisse non est aliqua auctoritas aperta quas in-
a quadam universalis ecclesiae traditione, nuat Deum seu Christum aperte instituisse
potius quam ex novi vel veteiis Testa- confessionem fiendam sacerdoti . Panorm .

ment! auctoritate. Gloss, de Pcenitent. in v. Decretal, de Pcenitent. et Remiss.


init. Distinct, v. In Posnitentia. cap. 12. Omnis utriusque, sect. 18.
86
Ergo necessaria est confessio in mor- Omnes juris pontificii periti, secuti
90

talibus apud nos, apud Grsecos non, quia primum suum interpretem, dicunt con-
non emanavit apud illos traditio tails. Ibid. fessionem tantum esse introductam jure
87 Imo confessio est instituta a
Domino, ecclesiastico. Maldon. Disp. de Sacra-
et est omnibus post baptismum lapsis in ment. Tom. ii. de Confess. Orig. cap. 2.
91
mortale peccatum, tarn Graecis quam Sed tamen haec opinio aut jam de-
Latinis, jure divino necessaria. Rom. clarata est satis tanquam haeresis ab eccle-
Correct, ibid, in marg. sia, aut faceret ecclesia operae pretium,
88
Michael Angrianus in Psal. xxix. si declararet esse haeresim. Id. ibid, de
89
Multum mihi placet ilia opinio, quia Praecepto Confess, cap. 3.
IV.]
OF CONFESSION. 99

opinion is either already sufficiently declared by the Church


to be heresy, or that the Church should do well if it did
declare it to be heresy."
And we find indeed, that in the year of our Lord 147.9,
which was 34 years after the death of Panormitan, by
a special commission directed from Pope Sixtus the Fourth
unto Alfonsus Carillus, Archbishop of Toledo, one Petrus
Oxomensis, Professor of Divinity in the University of
92
Salamanca, was driven to abjure this conclusion, which
he had before delivered as agreeable to the common opinion
of the doctors, " that confession of sins in particular was
grounded upon some statute of the universal Church, and
not upon divine right." And when learned men for all this
would not take warning, but would needs be meddling again
with that which the Popish Clergy could not endure should
be touched, (as Johannes de Selva, among others, in the
end of his treatise de Jurejurando, Erasmus in divers of
his works, and Beatus Rhenanus in his argument upon
Tertullian's book de Poenitentia,) the Fathers of Trent,
within 72 years after that, conspired together to stop all
93
men's mouths with an anathema, that should deny sacra-
mental confession to be of divine institution, or to be neces-
sary unto salvation. And so we are come to an end of that
point.

OF THE PRIEST'S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS.

FROM Confession we are now to proceed unto Absolution,


which it were pity this man should receive before he made
confession of the open wrong he hath here done, in charging
us to deny " that priests have power to forgive sins."
Whereas the very formal words which our Church requireth
to be used in the ordination of a minister, are these " Whose :
l

sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins
thou dost retain, they are retained." And therefore, if this

92
Quod confessio de peccatis in specie Carranzam in summa Concil. sub Sixto
fuerit ex aliquo statute universalis eccle- IV.
93
siae, non de jure divino. Congregat. Concil. Trident. Sess. xiv. Can. (I

Complutens. sub Alfonso Crxrillo, apud


1
The Form of Ordering of Priests.
100 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

be all the matter, the Fathers and we shall agree well


enough ; make-bate would fain put friends
howsoever this

together by the ears, where there is no occasion at all of


quarrel. For we acknowledge most willingly, that the
principalpart of the priest's ministry is exercised in the
matter of " forgiveness of sins ;" the question only is of
the manner, how this part of their function is executed by
them, and of the bounds and limits thereof, which the Pope
and his for their own advantage, have enlarged
clergy,
beyond measure
all of truth and reason.
That we may therefore give unto the priest the things
that are the priest's, and to God the things that are God's,
and not communicate unto any creature the power that
2
properly belongeth to the Creator, who will not give his
glory unto another ; we must in the place lay this down first

for a sure ground, that to forgive sins properly, directly,


and absolutely, is a privilege only appertaining unto the
Most High. /, saith he of himself, even I am he that
blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will
not remember thy sins. Isaiah xLiii. 25. Who is a God
like unto that pardoneth iniquity ? saith the prophet
thee,
Micah, vii.which in effect is the same with that of the
18;
scribes, Mark ii. 7> and Luke v. 21 Who can forgive sins but
:

God alone ? And therefore, when David saith unto God, Thou
forgavest the iniquity of my sin, Psalm xxxii. 5, Gregory,
surnamed the Great, the first Bishop of Rome of that name,
" 3
thought this to be a sound paraphrase of his words, Thou,
who who alone forgivest sins. For who can
alone sparest,

forgive but God


sins alone ?" He did not imagine that
he had committed any great error in subscribing thus
simply unto that sentence of the scribes ; and little dreamed
that any petty doctors afterwards would arise in Rome
or Rheims, who would us a fair " 4 the
tell tale, that faithless
Jews thought as heretics now-a-days, that to forgive sins
was so proper to God, that it could not be communicated
unto man;" and that " 5 true believers refer this to the increase

4
Esai. xLviii. 11. Rhemists, Annot. in Matt. ix. 5.
3
Tu, qui solus parcis, qui solus peccata 5
Richard Hopkins, in the Memorial
dimittis. Quis enim potest peccata di- of a Christ. Life, p. 179. edit. ann.
mittere, nisi solus Deus ? Gregor. Ex- 1612.
posit. ii. Psalmi Poenitential.
V. OF THE riUEST S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. 101

of God's honour, which miscreant Jews and heretics do


account blasphemy against God and
injurious to his majesty."
Whereas in truth the faithlessness of the Jews consisted in
the application of this sentence against our Saviour Christ,
whom they did not acknowledge to be God ; as the senseless-
ness of these Romanists in denying of the axiom itself.
But the world is come unto a good pass, when we must
be accounted " heretics now-a-days," and consorted with
" miscreant for holding the selfsame thing that the
Jews,"
Fathers of the ancient Church delivered as a most certain
truth, whensoever they had any occasion to treat of this part
of the history of the Gospel. Old Irenaeus telleth us, that
our Saviour in this place, " 6
forgiving sins did both cure
the man, and manifestly discover who he was. For if
" can sins but God and our
none," saith he, forgive alone,
Lord did forgive them, and cured men, it is manifest that
he was the Word of God made the Son of man ; and that
as man he is touched with compassion of us, as God he
hath mercy on us, and forgiveth us our debts which we do
owe unto our Maker." Tertullian saith that " 7 when the
Jews, beholding only his humanity, and not being yet cer-
tain of his Deity, did deservedly reason that a man could
not forgive sins, but God alone," he, by answering of them,
that " the Son of man had authority to forgive sins," would

by this remission of sins have them call to mind, that he


was " only Son of man prophesied of in Daniel, who
8
that
received power of judging, and thereby also of forgiving
of sins." Dan. vii. 13, 14. St Hilary, commenting upon the
ninth of Matthew, writeth thus :
" 9
It moveth the scribes

6
Peccata igitur remittens, hominem qua Dei quoque filium, merito retracta-
quidem curavit, semetipsum autem mani- rent,non posse hominem delicta dimittere,
festo ostendit quis esset. Si enim nemo sed Deum solum, &c. Tertullian. lib. iv.
potest remittere peccata, nisi solus Deus, advers. Marcion. cap. 10.
8
remittebat autem haec Dominus, et curabat Ilium scilicet solum filium hominis
homines; manifestum est, quoniam ipse apud Danielis Prophetiam, consecutum
eratVerbum Dei Filiushominisfactus,&c. judicandi potestatem, ac per earn utique
etquomodo homo compassus est nobis, et dimittendi delicta. Id. ibid.
9 Movet scribas, remissum ab homine
tanquam Deus misereatur nostri, et reniit-
tat nobis debita nostra, qua; factori nostro peccatum; (hominem enim tantum in
debemus Deo. Irenaeus advers. Hseres. Jesu Christo contuebantur ; ) et remissum
lib. v. cap. 17. ab co, quod lex laxare non poterat. Fides
~
Nam cum Judaei, soluinmodo homi- enim sola justificat. Deinde murmura-
nem ejus intuentcs, nee clum ct Dcum certi, tionem eorum Dominus introspicit, dicit-
102 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

that should be forgiven by a man; (for they beheld


sin
a man
only in Jesus Christ ;) and that to be forgiven by him,
which the law could not release for it is faith
only that :

justifieth.Afterward the Lord looketh into their murmur-


ing, and saith, that it is an easy thing for the Son of man
upon earth to forgive sins. For it is true, none can forgive
sins but God alone: therefore he who remitteth is God,
because none remitteth but God. God remaining in man,
" 10 We
performed this cure upon man." St Jerome thus:
read that God saith in the prophet, / am he that blotteth
out thine Consequently therefore the scribes,
iniquities.
because they thought him to be a man, and did not under-
stand the words of God, accuse him of blasphemy. But
the Lord, seeing their thoughts, sheweth himself to be God,
who is able to know the secrets of the heart; and
holding
his peace, after a sort speaketh By the same majesty and :

power wherewith I behold your thoughts, I am able also


to forgive sins unto men?" Or, as Euthymius expresseth it
in his commentaries upon the same place: " n ln
truth,
none can forgive sins but one, who beholdeth the thoughts
11
of men. St Chrysostom likewise, in his sermons upon the
same, sheweth that Christ here declared himself to be God,
12
equal unto the Father ; and that if he had not been equal

unto the Father, he would have said, " do you attri- Why
bute unto me an unfitting opinion ? I am far from that
power. To the same effect also writeth Christianus
11

Druthmarus, Paschasius Radbertus, and Walafridus Strabus


in the ordinary gloss upon the same place of St Matthew ;

que facile esse filio hominis in terra peccata Eadem maj estate et potentia, qua cogita-
dimittere. Verum enim, nemo potest di- tiones vestras intueor, possum et hominibus
mittere peccata, nisi solus Deus ergo qui
:
peccata dimittere. Hieron. lib. i. Com-
remittit Deus est, quia nemo remittit nisi mentar. in Matt. ix.
11
Deus. in homine manens curatio-
Deus Vere nullus potest remittere pec-
nem homini praastabat. Hilar. in Matth. cata, nisi unus, qui intuetur cogita-
Canon. 8. tiones hominum. Euthym. cap. 13. in
10
Legimusin prophetadicentemDeum, Matt.
12
Ego sum qui deleo iniquitates tuas. Con- Et ftt) i(ros r\v, e^prjv eiireiv, Ti /not
sequenter ergo scribae, quia hominem Tr/aoo-aTrreT-e /XT] Trpoa-^KOvffav vTroXrujsivi

putabant, et verba Dei non intelligebant, wopfxa TccuTtjs eyw TT/S Swa/mews. Chry-
arguunt eum blasphemies. Sed Dominus sost. in Matt. ix. Homil. xxix. Graec.
videns cogitationes eorum, ostendit se xxx. Latin. Vide etiam Basilium, lib. v.
Deum, qui possit cordis occulta cognos- contra Eunomium, p. 113. edit. Grraeco-
cere; et quodammodo tacens loquitur, Latin.
V. OF THE PRIEST'S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. 103

Victor Antiochenus upon the second of Mark ; Theophy-


lact and Bede upon the second of Mark and the fifth of
Luke St Ambrose upon the fifth of Luke ; who in
;

another place also bringeth this sentence of the scribes as


a ground to prove the Deity of the Holy Ghost withal:
forasmuch as " 13 none forgiveth sins but one God; because
it is written, Who can forgive sins but God alone ?" as
St Cyril doth to prove the Deity of the Son: "
14
For this
" of Jews
only," saith he, did the malice the say truly-, that
none can forgive sins but God alone, who is the Lord of
the law." And thence he frameth this argument: " 15 If he
alone who is the Lord of all doth free us from our sins, and
this agreeth to no other, and Christ bestoweth this with
a power befitting God, how should he not be God ?"
The same argument also is used by Novatianus and
to the selfsame " 16
For if when it
Athanasius, purpose.
agreeth unto none but unto God to know the secrets of the
heart, Christ doth behold the secrets of the heart ; if, when
it
agreeth unto none but unto God to forgive sins, the same
Christ doth forgive sins ; then deservedly is Christ to be
accounted God," saith Novatianus. So 17 Athanasius demandeth
of the Arians, If the Son were a creature, " how was he
able to forgive sins ?" it being written in the prophets, " that
this is the work of God. For who is a God like unto thee,
that taketh away and passeth over iniquities?" " 18 But
sins,
" said unto whom he
the Son," saith he, would, Thy sins are

13
Peccata nemo condonat nisi unus cata dimittit, &c. merito Deus est Christus.
Deus ; quia aeque scriptum est, Quis potest Novatian. de Trinitat. cap. 13.
peccata donate nisi solus Deus ? Ambros.
17 Hois oe, elirep KTia-fia r\v Aoyos, Ttjw
de Spir. Sanct. lib.cap. 19.
iii. aVo</>ao-u/ TOV Qeov Xu<rai ^vi/a-ros tjy, KOL
14
Istud enim solum malitia Judaeorum a</>eu/ai (1/j.apTtav, yeypa/m/uLevov irapa.
vere dicebat, quod nullus potest dimittere TOIS 7TpO<^)JTaiS, OTL TOVTO QeOU CffTl* TlV

peccata, nisi solus Deus, qui legis Dominus yap 0eos, uxrirep eaip<av a/ia/orias,
<rv,

est. Cyril.Alexand.Thesaur.lib.xii.cap.4. /cai uTrepfiaivwv dvop-iai Athanas. Orat.


;

15
Ei /UOJ/QS i}fj.a<3 ctTraXAaxTei o Ttav in. cont. Arian. p. 239. Tom. i. edit.
o\(av 6eos TrXtj/ujueXTj/uaTft)!/, eTepta trpe- Graeco-Lat. Commelin.
'
18
TTOVTO? TOVTOV 'O 6e ulos e'Xeyev ols ;06\6i/,
fii]&evi, yapi^CTcti oe KO.I
TOVTO X/oioros p.T eoua-ias QeoTTpeirovs, aroi ai a/ua/oTiai <rov. ore KaiTwv
TTCOS OVK av eij 0eo's Id. in lib. de Recta
; yoyyvfyvToov, epyu> TtjV a(pe<ri
Fide ad Reginas. \eyoav TW TrapaXvTiKw, 'Eyeipai, apov TOV
10
Quod si cum nullius sit nisi Dei KpdfifiaTOV <TOV, Kcii viTciye eis TOV O!KOV
cord is nosse secreta, Christus secreta con- <TOV. Id. Epist. de Synodis Arimin. et

->picit cordis ; quod si, cum nullius sit nisi Scleuc. p. 712. Vide etiam Orat. iv.
Dei peccata dimittere, idem Christus pec- contra Arian. p. 254 et 281.
104 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

forgiven thee: and when the Jews murmured, did demon-


strate also this forgiveness indeed, saying to the man that
was sick of the palsy, Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto
thine house" And
Bede rightly inferreth, that
therefore
" 19 the Arians do err here much more
madly" than the Jews;
" when dare not
who, they deny, being convicted by the
words of the Gospel, that Jesus is both the Christ, and hath
power to forgive sins, yet fear not for all that to deny
him to be God ;" and concludeth himself most soundly,
that " 20 if he be God according to the Psalmist, who re-
moveth our iniquities from us as far as the east is from the
west, and the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive
sins, therefore the same is both God and the Son of man;
that the man
Christ by the power of his Divinity might

forgive sins, and the same Christ God by the frailty of


1
his humanity might die for sinners." Whereunto we will
add another sweet passage, borrowed by him from an
ancienter author: " 21 No man taketh away sins (which the
law, although holy, and just, and good, could not take
away,) but he in whom there is no sin now he taketh :

them away, both by pardoning those that are done, and by


assisting us that they may not be done, and by bringing
us to the life where they cannot at all be done." 22 Peter
23
Lombard allegeth this as the saying of St Augustine, the
former sentence only being thus changed: " 24 None taketh

away sins but Christ alone, who is the Lamb that taketh

away the sins of the world'," agreeable to that, which in

19
Sed multo dementias errant Ariani, 21
Nemo tollit peccata (quae nee lex,
qui cum Jesum
et Christum esse, et pec- quamvis sancta et justa et bona, potuit
cata posse dimittere, Evangelii verbis de- auferre) nisi ille in quo peccatum non est.
victi, negare non audeant ; nihilominus Tollit autem, et dimittendo quae facta
Deum negare non timent. Bed. in Marc, adjuvando ne fiant, et perducendo
sunt, et
lib. cap. 10.
i. ad vitam ubi fieri omnino non possunt.
20 Si et Deus est
juxta Psalmistam, qui Id. in 1 Johan. iii.

quantum distat oriens ab occasu elongavit 22


P. Lombard, lib. iv. Sentent. Dis-
a nobis iniquitates nostras, et films homi- tinct, xvin. D.
nis potestatem habet in terra dimittendi 83 In quo etiam eandem demum repperi.
peccata ergo idem ipse et Deus et filius
;
Lib. ii. contra posteriorem Juliani Respons.
hominis est; ut et homo Christus per
Num. 84.
divinitatis suae potentiam peccata dimit-
tere possit, et idem Deus Christus per
24 Nemo tollit peccata, nisi solus Chris-

humanitatis suae fragilitatem pro pecca- tus, qui est agnus tollens peccata mundi.
toribus mori. Id. ibid. August.
V-]
OF THE PRIEST S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. 105

the same place he citeth out of St Ambrose: " ^He alone


forgiveth sins who alone died for our sins;" and to that
of Clemens Alexandrinus :
" 26
He alone can remit sins who
is appointed our master by the Father of all, who alone
is able to discern disobedience from obedience." To which
purpose also St Ambrose maketh this observation upon the
history of the woman taken in adultery, John viii. 9, that
" 27
For it
Jesus, being about to pardon sin, remained alone.
" nor the
is not the ambassador," saith he, messenger, but
the Lord himself that hath saved his people. He remaineth
alone, because it cannot be common to any man with Christ
to forgive sins. alone, who
This is the office of Christ
taketh away the sin of the world." Yea, St Chrysostom
himself, who of all the Fathers giveth most in this point
unto God's ambassadors and messengers, is yet careful withal
to preserve God's privilege entire by often interposing such
sentences as these: " None can forgive sins but God
28

alone." " 29
To forgive sins belongeth to no other." ^To
sins is to God " 31 God alone doth
forgive possible only."
this ; which also he worketh in the washing of the new
birth." Wherein that the work of cleansing the soul is

wholly God's, and the minister hath no hand at all in

effectingany part of it, Optatus proveth at large in his


fifth book against the Donatists; shewing that " ^none
can wash the filth and spots of the mind but he who is
the framer of the same mind;" and convincing the heretics,
as by many other testimonies of holy Scripture, so by that

25
Ille solus peccata dimittit, qui mundi. Ambros. Epist. LXXVI. ad Stu-
solus pro peccatis nostris mortuus est. dium.
28
Ambros. Ou^eis yap SvvaTat dtpievat d/map-
26
Moi/os OUTOS olos T dffiievai -rd Tias, el /ut; /uoi/os o Oco's. Chrysost. in
Tr\ilfifji\tifiaTa, vir6 TOV TTCCT/OOS TWV 2 Corinth, iii. Homil. vi.
o\cov 6 Tax^ets Traidaytayos TJ/iwi/, JUOPOS
59
To yap dfyelvai dfiaprias oWei/os
o TT/S UTTCC/COT/S SiaKplvcti Tt\v TrapaKor}v erepov eo-Ti. Id. in Johan. viii. HomiL
Svvd/jievo?. Clem. Alexandr. Paedagog. LIV. edit. Graec. vel LIII. Latin.
lib. 30
i. cap. 8. 'A/xa/rnj'ftaTa /nei/ ydp dtyelvai fiovta
27
Donaturus peccatum, solus remanet 0ew Swarov. Id. in 1 Cor. xv. Homil. XL.

Jesus, &c. Non enim legatus neque 31


9eos ydp /uoi/os TOVTO TTOICI. o &r\ no!
nuncius, sed ipse Dominus salvum fecit ev TW \ovrpw T^S TraXiyyevetrias epyd-
populum suum. Solus remanet, quia non JeTat. Id. ibid.
32
potest hoc cuiquam hominum cum Christo Sordes et maculas mentis lavare non
csse commune, ut peccata condonet. Solius potest, nisi qui ejusdem fabricator est
hoc munus est Christi, qui tulit peccatum mentis. Optat. lib. v.
106 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

of Isaiah which he presseth in this manner: " 33 It


i.
18,

belongeth unto God to cleanse, and not unto man; he hath


promised by the Prophet Isaiah, that he himself would
wash, when he saith, If your sins were as scarlet, I will
make them as white as snow. I will make them white, he
said ; he did not say, I will cause them to be made white.
If God hath promised this, why will you give that, which is
neither lawful for you to promise, nor to give, nor to have ?
Behold, in Isaiah God hath promised that he himself will
make white such as are defiled with sins, not by man."
Having thus therefore reserved unto God his preroga-
tive royal in cleansing of the soul, we give unto his under
officers their due, when we " ^account of them as of the
ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God"
35
not as Lords, that have power to dispose of spiritual
36
graces as they please ; but as servants, that are tied to
follow their master's prescriptions therein ; and in follow-
37
ing thereof do but bring their external ministry, for which
itself also they are beholding to God's mercy and goodness,
God conferring the inward blessing of his Spirit there-
when and where he will.
^ Who then is
upon, Paul,
saith St Paul himself, and who is Apollo ? but ministers
by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every
man. saith in " 39
all the servants
Therefore, Optatus,
there is no but a ministry." M Cui creditur
dominion,
ipse dat quod creditur, non per quern creditur ; " It is he
who is believed that giveth the thing which is believed, not
he by whom we do believe." Whereas our Saviour, then,
saith unto his Apostles, John xx. Receive the Holy Ghost;
41
whose sins you forgive shall be forgiven: St Basil,

33
Dei est mundare, non hominis :
ipse Kovi'icracrQai TOVTOIS, CLTTO eXeoi/ /cat </u\ai/-

per prophetam Esaiam promisit se lotu- QptoTria<s. Id. ibid.


38
rum, dum ait, Etsi fuerint peccata vestra 1 Cor. iii. 5.
39
velut coccum, ut nivem inalbabo. Inal- Est ergo in universis servientibus non
babo, dixit ; non dixit, Faciam inalbari. dominium, sed ministerium Optat lib. v. . .

40
Si hoc Deus promisit, quare vos vultis Id. ibid. Similiter et Chrysost. in
Cor. Homil. VIII. TOVTO Se UUTO
reddere, quod vobis nee promittere licet, 1 iii.

nee reddere, nee habere ? Ecce in Esaia p.ev ra6' eavTO fj.eya KOL TTO\\WV a^iov
/mia-QoaV Trpos & TO apyeTWirov
se promisit Deus inalbare peccatis aff'ec- nal Tt}v

tos, non per hominem. Id. ibid. pi^av TIOV dyaQatv ovoev. ov yap o Sia-
34 1 Cor. iv.
1, 2. Kovovfievos TOIS a'ya6oTs, aXX' o
35 avTa. OUTOS GCTTLV o
Chrysost. in 1 Cor. iv. Homil. x. K.a.1 i5ous,
36 Id. in 2 Cor. iv. Homil. v in. circa i nit.
41
Basil, lib. v. advers. Eunom. p. 113.
37 Kou yap TOVTO CIVTO, <pr](Ti,
TO oict- edit, GrcECO-Latin.
OF THE PRIEST S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. 107

43 44 45
'~
Ambrose, Augustine, Chrysostom, and Cyril, make this
observation thereupon ; that this isnot their work properly,
but the work of the Holy Ghost, who remitteth by them, and
therein performeth the work of the true God. For " 4C
indeed,"
saith St Cyril, " it belongeth to the trueGod alone to be
able to loose men from their sins. For who else can free
the transgressors of the law from sin, but he who is the
Author of the law itself?" " 47 The Lord," saith St Augus-
" was to
tine, give unto men the Holy Ghost and he ;

would have be understood, that by the Holy Ghost


it to
himself sins should be forgiven to the faithful, and not that

by the merits of men sins should be forgiven. For what


art thou, O man, but a sick man that hast need to be
healed? Wilt thou be a physician to me? Seek the phy-
sician together with me." So St Ambrose: " 48 Behold,
that by the Holy Ghost sins are forgiven. But men to
the remission of sins bring their ministry ; they exercise
not the authority of any power." St Chrysostom, though
he make this to be the exercise of a great power, (which
49
also he elsewhere amplifieth after his manner, exceeding

hyperbolically,) yet in the main matter accordeth fully with


in "
50
St Ambrose, that it lieth God alone to bestow the
wherein the service is
" 51 And
things priest's employed."
what speak I of priests ?" saith he " neither
angel nor :

archangel can do ought in those things which are given by


God; but the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost do

42 48
Ambros. de Spir. Sanct. lib. iii.
Ecce, quia per Spiritum Sanctum
cap. 19. peccata donantur. Homines autem in re-
43
August, contra Epist. Parmenian. missionem peccatorum ministerium suum
lib. ii. cap. 11. et Homil. xxm. Ex. 50. exhibent, non jus alicujus potestatis ex-
44
Chrysost. in 2 Cor. Homil. vi.
iii. ercent. Ambros. de Spir. Sanct. lib. iii,
45
Cyril. Alexandr. in Johan. lib. xii. cap. 19.
49
cap. 56. Chrysost. lib. iii. de Sacerdotio.
46 Et certe solius veri Dei est, ut possit 50 '!A.
yap eyKexeipurrai 6 iepeus, Qeov
a peccatis homines solvere. Cui enim alii Id. in Johan. xx.
/j.6vov ecrTi SwpeltrQai.
pncvaricatores legis liberare a peccato li- Homil. LXXXVI. edit. Graec. vel LXXXV.
cet, nisi legis ipsius auctori ? Id. ibid. Latin.
47 Daturus erat Dominus
hominibus 51
Kat TL \eyu> TOI/S Ie/O6?s ;
OVTG ay-
Spiritum Sanctum ; ab ipso Spiritu Sancto yeAos ovTe dpydyyeXo? pyd<ra<rdai TI
fidelibus suis dimitti peccata, non meritis SuvaTai eis TO fiedofteva irapd TOV Qeov f
hominum volebat intelligi dimitti peccata. dAAa TTOTTJ/O KOI ulos /cai ciytov Tn/ev/ua
Nam quid es, homo, nisi jeger sanandus ? irdvTa. oiKovofiel. o Se lepevs TIJU cavrov
Vis mihi esse medicus ? mecum quaere favefgei yXSm-av, KOI T\\V eavrov Tra/oe'xe*
medicum. August. Homil. xxm. Ex. 50. XcT/oa. Id. ibid.
108 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

dipense all. The


priest lendeth his tongue, and putteth to
his hand/' " 52
His part only is to open his mouth; but
it is God that worketh all." And the reasons whereby both
53
he, and Theophylact after him, do prove that the priests
of the law had no power to forgive sins, are of as great
force to take the same power from the ministers of the Gospel.
54
First, because it is God's which
part only to forgive sins :

55
is the moral that Haymo maketh of that part of the history
of the Gospel, wherein the lepers are cleansed by our Saviour,
before they be commanded to shew themselves unto the
" " not the but God
priests ; because," saith he, priests,
doth forgive Secondly,sins." priests were because 5lj
the
servants, yea servants of sin, and therefore had no power to
forgive sins unto others ; but the Son is the Lord of the
57
house, who was manifested to take away our sins, and in
him is no sin, saith St John. Upon which saying of his,
St Augustine giveth this note: U58 lt is he in whom
good
there is no sin, that came to take away sin. For if there
had been sin in him too, it must have been taken away
from him he could not take it away himself."
;

To
forgive sins, therefore, being thus proper to God
only and to his Christ, his ministers must not be held to
have power communicated unto them, but in an improper
this

sense, namely, because God forgiveth by them, and hath

appointed them both to apply those means by which he useth


to forgive sins, and to give notice unto repentant sinners
" 59 For who can
of that forgiveness. forgive sins but God
alone? yet doth he forgive by them also unto whom he
hath given power to forgive," saith St Ambrose and his

62 56
To irdv TT; yapi'Tos ea"rt' TOVTOV AojJXot KctKelvoi ov-res ol le/oeTs v/ntov

<TTLV dvoifcat fiovov TO a-TOfia. TO $e OVK eypvaiv eov<riav dr/ucWu aXXoisctyua/o-


TTO.V 6 06os epyaC^Tai' <rvfJL/Bo\ov oS-ros Ttas. Theophylact. in Johan. viii.
TrXrjpoi fiovov. Id. in 2 Tim. cap. i. 57 1 John iii. 5.
58 In quo non
Homil. ii. est peccatum, ipse venit
63
Id. in Johan. viii. Homil. LIV. Graec. auferre peccatum. Nam si esset et in
vel LI n. Latin. illo peccatum, auferendum esset illi,
54 non ipse
To yap
dfyelvai a/xa/oTtas 6eou JJLOVOV. auferret. August. Tract, iv. in
Theophylact. in Johan. viii. 1 Johan. iii.

55 59
Juxta spiritualem intelligentiam le- Quis enim potest peccata dimittere
prosi, antequam ad sacerdotes veniant, nisi solus Deus ? qui per eos quoque
mundantur ; quia non sacerdotes sed Deus dimittit, quibus dimittendi tribuit po-
peccata dimittit. Haymo Halberstat. in testatem. Ambr. lib. v. Comment, in

Evang. Domin. xv. post Pentecost. Luc. v.


OF THE PRIEST'S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. 109

r
'followers. And " fil

though it be the proper work of God


"
to remit sins," saith Ferus, yet are the Apostles'" and their
successors " said to remit also, not simply, but because they

apply those means whereby God doth remit sins which :

means are the word of God and the Sacraments." Where-


unto also we may add the relaxation of the censures of the
Church, and prayer for in these four the whole exercise
;

of this ministry of reconciliation , as the 62 Apostle calleth it,


doth mainly consist. Of each whereof it is needful that we
should speak somewhat more particularly.
That prayer is a means ordained by God for procuring
remission of sins, St Chrysostom observeth out of Job xLii. 8,
(;3

64
and plain by that of St James
is The prayer of faith shall :

save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up : and if he
have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess
your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that

ye may healed:
be for the fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much. The latter of which sentences hath
reference to the prayers of every good Christian, whereunto
we find a gracious promise annexed, according to that of
St John :
65
If any man see his brother sin a sin which is

not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for
them that sin not unto death. But the former, as the verse
immediately going before doth manifestly prove, pertaineth
to the prayers made by the ministers of the Church, who
have a special charge to be the Lord's remembrancers for
the good of his people. And therefore, as St Augustine
out of the latter proveth, that one brother by this means 6(>

may cleanse another from the contagion of sin, so doth


St Chrysostom out of the former, that priests do perform
" 67
this, not by teaching only and admonishing, but by assist-
ing us also with their prayers." And the faithful prayers,

60 Beda et Strabus in Marc. ii.


et Luc. v. Kaiiov Trepiaipel dfiapTiav. Chrysost. in
61
QuamvisDei proprium opus sit Catena Graeca, in Job. XLii. 8.
64 James v. 15, 16.
remittere peccata, dicuntur tamen etiam
65 1
Apostoli remittere, non simpliciter, sed John v. 16.
66
quia adhibent media, per qua Deus re- Quod etiam frater fratrem a delicti
mittit peccata. Haec autem media sunt mundare. August, in
poterit contagione
verbum Dei et sacramenta. Ic. Ferus, Evang. Johan. Tract. LVIII.
Annotat. in Johan. xx. item lib. iii. Com- 67 Ou TO) dt&da-Keiv
H.QVOV /cat vovQeTeiv,
ment, in Matt. cap. xvi. d\\d /cat TU> 81 ev-^iav /SorjBeti/. Chrysost.
62 lib. iii. de Sacer. Tom. vi. edit. Savil.
2 Cor. v. 18.
yivwarKOfiev on cux'i Si- P. 17.
110 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

68
both of the one and of the other, are by St Augustine
made the especial means whereby the power of the keys is
exercised in the remitting of sins; who thereupon exhorteth
offenders to shew their repentance publicly in the Church,
" 69
that the Church might pray for them," and impart the
benefit of absolution unto them.
In theof St Basil, fathered upon 70 Amphilochius,
life

of the credit whereof we have before spoken, a certain gentle-


woman is
coming unto St Basil for obtaining
brought in
remission of her sins, who
is said there to have demanded
" Hast thou
this question of her: heard, O woman, that
none can forgive sins but God alone ?" and she to have
returned him this answer " I have heard and
it, Father,
:

therefore have I moved thee to make intercession unto our


most merciful God for me." Which agreeth well with that
which 71 Alexander of Hales and 72 Bonaventure do maintain,
that the power of the keys extends to the remission of faults,

by way of intercession only and deprecation, not by imparting


any immediate absolution. And as in our private forgiving
and praying one for another, St Augustine well noteth, that
"
part, God giving us the grace, to use the ministry
73
it is our

of charity and humility ; but it is his to hear us, and to


cleanse us from all pollution of sins for Christ, and in Christ ;
that what we forgive unto others, that is to say, what we
loose upon earth, may be loosed also in heaven :" so doth
St Ambrose shew, that the case also standeth with the ministers
of the Gospel, in the execution of that commission given unto
" 74
them for the remitting of sins, John xx. 23 They make :

" the Godhead bestoweth the


request," saith he, gift ; for
the service is done by man, but the bounty is from the power

68 72
August, de Baptismo contra Dona- Bonaventur. in lib. iv. Sent. Dist.
tist. lib. iii. cap. 17, 18. xvin. Art. 2. Quasst. 1.
73 Nostrum
69
Id. Homil. XL ix. Ex. 50. est, donante ipso, ministeri-
Agite
um caritatis et humilitatis adhibere ; illius
pcenitentiam qualis agitur in ecclesia, ut
est exaudire, ac nos ab omni peccatorum
oret pro vobis ecclesia.
contaminatione mundare per Christum et
70 Tom. ii. Vit. Sanct. ab Aloysio Li-
in Christo ; ut quod aliis etiam dimittimus,
pomano, edit. Venet. ann. 1553. fol. 298 ; hoc est, in terra solvimus, solvatur et in
Vit. Patrum, ab Her. Rosweydo, edit.
fine Tractat. LVIII. in
ccelo.August, in
Antuerp. ann. 1615. p. 160; Miscellan. a Evang. Johan.
Oerardo Vossio, edit. Mogunt. ann. 1604.
rogant, divinitas donat. Huma-
74 Isti

p. 136. num enim obsequium, sed munificentia


71 Alex, in Sum. part. TV. Quaest. 21. supernae est potestatis. Ambros. de Spir.
Membr. 1. Sanct. lib. iii. cap. 19.
V-] OF THE PRIEST S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. Ill

above." The reason which he rendereth thereof is, because


in their ministry Holy Ghost that forgiveth the sin ;
it is the
and it is God only that can give the Holy Ghost. " 75 For
this is not a human work," saith he in another place,
" neither is the
Holy Ghost given by man, but being called
upon by the priest, is bestowed by God ; wherein the gift
is God's, the ministry is the priest's. For if the Apostle
Paul did judge that he could not confer the Holy Ghost
by but believed himself to be so far unable
his authority,
for this office, that he wished we might be filled with the
Spirit from God, who is so great as dare arrogate unto
himself the bestowing of this gift? Therefore the Apostle
did intimate his desire by prayer, he challenged no right
by any authority he wished to obtain it, he presumed not
:

to command it." Thus far St Ambrose, of whom Paulinus


" 76 the
writeth, that whensoever any penitents came unto him,
crimes which they confessed unto him he spake of to none,
but to God alone, unto whom he made intercession; leaving
a good example to the priests of succeeding ages, that they
be rather intercessors for them unto God, than accusers unto
men." The same also, and in the selfsame words, doth
"Jonas write of Eustachius, the scholar of Columbanus our
famous countryman.
Hitherto appertaineth that sentence cited by 78 Thomas
Walden out of St Jerome's Exposition upon the Psalms,
that the voice of God " 79
cutteth off daily in every one of
us the flame of lust by confession and the grace of the Holy
Ghost, that is to say, by the prayer of the priest maketh

75 Non enim humanum hoc bonum


opus, neque quern intercedebat, loquebatur;
ab homine datur; sed invocatus a sacer- relinquens exemplum posteris sacerdoti-
dote, a Deo traditur : in quo Dei munus, bus, ut intercessores apud Deum magis
ministerium sacerdotis est. Nam si Paulus sint, quam accusatores apud homines.
Apostolus judicavit quod ipse donare Paulinus, in Vita Sti. Ambrosii.
77 Luxo-
Spiritum Sanctum sua auctoritate non Jonas, in Vita Sti. Eustachii
posset, et in tantum se huic officio im- viensis Abbatis, cap. i. apud Surium,
parem credidit, ut a Deo nos spiritu op- Tom. ii. Mart. 29.
taret impleri; quis tantus est qui hujus
78 Tho. Waldens. Tom. n. de Sacra-
tradition em muneris sibi audeat arrogare ? mentis, cap. 14J.
79
Itaque Apostolus votum precatione detulit, Quotidie in unoquoque nostrum
non jus auctoritate aliqua vindicavit : flammam libidinis
per confessionem et
impetrare optavit, non imperare prassump- gratiam Spiritus Sancti intercidit, id est,
sit. Id. ibid. lib. i.
cap. 7. per orationem sacerdotis facit cessare.
76
Causas autem criminum, quas illi con- Hieronym. in Exposit. Psal. xxviii. in -

fitebantur, nulli nisi Domino soli, apud edit.


112 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

it to cease in us:" and that which before hath been alleged


out of Leo, of the confession offered first to God and then
to the priest, " 80 who cometh as an intreater for the sins of
the penitent." Which he more fully expresseth in another
to be " 81
epistle,affirming very profitable and necessary
it

that the guilt of sins (or sinners) be loosed by the supplica-


cation of the priest before the last day." See 82 St Gregory
in his moral Exposition upon 1 Sam. ii. 25 ; Anastasius
Sinaita, or Nicaenus, in his answer to the 141st question, of
Gretser*s edition ; and Nicolaus Cabasilas, in the 29th chapter
of his Exposition of the Liturgy, where he directly affirmeth
that " remission of sins is given to the penitents by the prayer
of the priests." And therefore by the order used of old in
the Church of Rome, the priest, before he began his work,
was required to use this prayer: " 83 O Lord God Almighty,
be merciful unto me a sinner, that I may worthily give thanks
unto thee who hast made me, an unworthy one, for thy mer-
cies' sake, a minister of the
priestly office and hast appointed ;

me a poor and humble mediator, to pray and make interces-


sion unto our Lord Jesus Christ for sinners that return unto

repentance. And therefore, O Lord the Ruler, who wouldest


have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the
truth, who dost desire not the death of a sinner, but that
he reconciled and live, receive my prayer, which I
may be
pour forth before the face of thy mercy for thy servants and
handmaids, who have fled to repentance and to thy mercy."
Add hereunto the prayer of Damascen, which is still used
in the Greek Church before the receiving of the Communion :

80
Qui pro delictis pcenitentium pre- dum et intercedendum ad Dominum nos-
cator accedit. Leo, in fin. Epist. LXXX. trum Jesum Christum pro peccatoribus
ad Episc. Campan. ad pcenitentiam revertentibus. Ideoque
dominator Domine, qui omnes homines
81
Multum enim utile ac necessarium
vis salvos fieri et ad agnitionem veritatis
est, ut peccatorum reatus ante ultimum
diem sacerdotali supplicatione solvatur. venire, qui non vis mortem peccatoris, sed
ut convertatur et vivat, suscipe orationem
Id. Epist. xci. ad Theod. Episc.
82
meam, quam fundo ante conspectum cle-
Gregor. in i. Reg. lib. ii. cap. 3, ad
mentiae tuae, pro famulis et famulabus tuis,
illud, Si peccaverit vir in virum, &c.
qui ad pcenitentiam et misericordiam tuam
83
Domine Deus omnipotens, propitius confugerunt. Ordo Roman. Antiqu. de
esto mihi peccatori, ut condigne possim Officiis Divinis, p. 18. edit. Rom. ann.
tibi gratias agere, qui me indignum prop- 1591 ; Baptizatorum et Confitentium Cere-
ter tuam misericordiam ministrum fecisti moniae Antiquae, edit. Colon, ann. 1530 ;
sacerdotalis officii, et me exiguum humi- Alcuin. de Divin. Offic. cap. 13, in capite
lemque mediatorem constituisti ad oran- Jejunii.
OK THE J'UIKST S 1'OVVER TO FORGIVE SINS.

" N1
O Lord Jesus Christ, our God, who alone hast power to
in thy goodness and loving-kindness pass
forgive sins, by all
the offences" of thy servant, whether done " of
knowledge
or of ignorance, voluntary or involuntary, in deed or word
or thought ;" and that which is used after, in the
Liturgy
ascribed to St James, wherewith the priest shutteth up the
whole service: " 85 I beseech thee, Lord God, hear my prayer
in the behalf of thy servants, and as a forgetter of
injuries
pass over all their offences. Forgive them all their excess,
both voluntary and involuntary : deliver them from ever-
lasting punishment. who didst command For thou art he
us, saying, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be
bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth,
shall be loosed in heaven. Forasmuch as thou art our
God, a God who art able to shew mercy and save and for-
give sins : and glory becometh thee, together with the
Father who is without beginning, and the Spirit, the Author
of life, now and ever, and world without end. Amen."
Yea, in the days of Thomas Aquinas there arose a
learned among man Papists themselves, the who found
fault with that indicative form of absolution then used by
the priest, " I absolve thee from all thy sins," and would
have it delivered by way of deprecation ; alleging that
this was not only the opinion of Gulielmus Altisiodorensis,
Gulielmus Parisiensis, and Hugo Cardinalis, but also that
86
thirty years were scarce passed since all did use this form
only, Absolutionem et remissionem tribuat tibi omnipotens
"
Deus, Almighty God give unto thee absolution and for-
giveness." What Thomas doth answer hereunto, may be
seen in his little Treatise of the Form of Absolution, which

84
Ae<nroTa Kvpie 'Itj<roD X/Ho-re, o 0eos ocradv oe<rjTe eirl rr;<: y^s, ecr-rai

IJ/JLWV, o fJLOvos e\cov efyvaiav d<ptevai kv ToTs oujOavots, /cat o<ra dv XvtrtjTe eirt

dp.apTias, ws dya0os /cat <tXdi/0/oa>7ro, TT;S y^/s, e<r-rat XeXu/iej/a fv -rots ovpavols.

Trd/oioe iravra Ta i/ yi/w'tret /cat dyvoia OTI <rv el o 0eos tj/titoj/,


Geos TOV eXeeti/ /cat

TrXy/j./j.eXi'ifJLaTa, Ta e/couata /cat Ta a'/cou- aia^eiv /cat d^tci/at a'/ua/o-rtas


crta, Ta ev tpyta /cat \6yoo /cat /caTa did- /cat TTjoeTret <rot TJ oo^a avv Tut

voiav. Eucholog. Graec. fol. 217. TTOLTpi, /Cat TO)^WOTTOIW TTVVfJLUTl, V\1V KO.I
Nat <5eo"7TOTa Ki^oie, eiaaKovarov Tij'i del Kai ets TOUS atwi/a? TU>V alwviav 'A/nt/'i/. .

oejjo-ecos fjiov \nrep TU>V SovXwu <rov, /cat Liturg. Jacobi, in fine.

aJs TCC 86
Addit etiam objiciendo, quod vix
irdpioe d/iirj<rt/ca/co5 e-TrTaioyiei/a
avTtav cLTravTa. <rvy~)^tapt](ruv ai/Tots TTO.V 30 sunt quod omnes hac sola
anni
CKOIXTIOV Te /cat dKovaiov' forma utebantur, Absolutionem et re-
OU? T9 aiovov missionem, &c. Thom. Opusc. XXH.
r
tru yap el o e
\eyi cap. . .

II
114 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

upon this occasion he wrote unto the general of his order.


This only will I add, that as well in the ancient rituals
and in the new 87 Pontifical of the Church of Rome, as in
the present practice of the Greek Church, I find the abso-
lution expressed in the third person, as attributed wholly
to God ; and not in the first, as if it came from the priest
himself. One ancient form of 88 absolution used among the
"
Latins was Almighty God be merciful unto thee,
this :

and forgive thee all thy sins, past, present, and to come,
visible and invisible, which thou hast committed before
him and his saints, which thou hast confessed, or by some
negligence or forgetfulness or evil will hast concealed: God
deliver thee from all evil here and hereafter, preserve and
confirm thee always in every good work ; and Christ, the
Son of the living God, bring thee unto the life which
remaineth without end." And so among the Grecians
89
whatsoever sins the penitent " for forgetfulness or shame-
facedness doth leave unconfessed, we pray the merciful
and most pitiful God that those also may be pardoned unto
him, and we are persuaded that he shall receive pardon of
them from God," saith Jeremy, the late Patriarch of Con-
stantinople. Where, by the way, you may observe no such
necessity to be here held of confessing every known sin
unto a priest, that if either for shame, or some other

respect, the penitent do not make an entire confession, but


conceal somewhat from the notice of his ghostly Father, his
confession should thereby be made void, and he excluded
from all hope of forgiveness: which is that engine whereby
the priests of Rome have lift up themselves into that height
of domineering and tyrannizing over men's consciences, where-
with we see they now hold the poor people in most miserable
awe.

87 Pontificate Roman, edit. Rom. ann. bono ; et perducat te Christus Filius Dei
1595. p. 567, 568. vivi ad vitam sine fine manentem. Con-
88 Absolutlo Criminum. Misereatur tui fitentium Ceremoniae Antiqu. edit. Colon,

omnipotens Deus, et dimittat tibi omnia ann. 1530.


80
peccata tua, praeterita, praesentia et fu-
"Ova Se Sid X^Qrjv r; aiSw dveo/jio\6-
tura, quae commisisti coram eo et sanctis yr}Ta edtreLev, ev-^o/JieQa TU> iX*t$/MU>( /cat
ejus, quae confessus es, vel per aliquam TravoiKTip/JLOVi QeS> /cat TavTct avyywpT}-

negligentiam seu oblivionem vel male- Qjjvai avTu>, /cat 7re?rei(j>ie0a T>)V o-uyx&J-

volentiam abscondisti : liberet te Deus ptjviv TovTtav e/c Qeov Xijv/Ae<r0at. Jerem.
ab omni malo hie et in future, conser- Patriarch. C. P. Respons. r. ad Tubin-
vet et confirmet te semper in omni opere genses, cap. 11.
I
OF THE PRIEST S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. 115

Alexander of Hales and Bonaventure, in the form of


90 "
absolution used in their time, observe, that prayer was
premised in the optative, and absolution adjoined afterward
in the indicative mood."" Whence they gather, that the
" obtaineth his absolution
priest's prayer grace, presup-
1'

poseth by the former he ascendeth unto God, and


it; that

procureth pardon for the fault; by the latter he descendeth


to the sinner, and " reconcileth him to the Church." For
" 91 a man be loosed before saith the Master
although God,"
of the " is he not held loosed in the face
sentences, yet
of the Church but by the judgment of the priest." And
this loosing of men by the judgment of the priest is
by
the fathers generally accounted nothing else but a restoring of
them to the peace of the Church, and an admitting of them
to the Lord's Table
again; which therefore they usually
" 92
express by the terms of bringing them to the Commu-
" 93 them to or with the Communion,"
nion," reconciling
" 94 Communion " 95
restoring the to them," admitting them
to fellowship," " 96 gran ting them peace," &c. Neither do
we find that they did ever use any such formal absolution
" absolve thee from
as this, I thy sins :" wherein our all

Popish priests, notwithstanding, do place the very form of


their late devised sacrament of penance, nay, hold it to be
so absolute a form, that, according to Thomas Aquinas's
new 97
it would not be sufficient to say,
"
divinity, Almighty
90 Secundum quod ascendit, habet se xvm. Vide Ivon. Carnotens. Epist.
per modum inferioris et supplicantis ; ccxxvin. et Anselm. in Luc. xvii.
secundum quod descend!!, per modum 92
TlpoffdyeffQat Trj KOivcavia. Concil.

superioris et judicantis. Secundum pri- Laodicen. Can. n.


mum modum potest gratiam impetrare, et
93
Communioni, vel communione recon-
ad hoc est idoneus secundum secundum
: ciliari. Concil. Eliberitan. Can. i.xxn.
modum potest ecclesiae reconciliare. Et 94
Reddi eis communionem. Amb. de
ideo in signum hujus, in forma absolu- Pcenitent. lib. i. cap. 1, et lib. ii.
cap. 9.
tionis praemittitur oratio per modum de-
95 Ad communicationem admittere.
precativum, et subjungitur absolutio per Cypr. Epist. LIII. Communicationem
modum indicativum : etdeprecatio gratiam dare. Id. Epist. LIV. Tribuere communi-
cationem. Id. de Lapsis.
impetrat, et absolutio gratiam supponit.
96
Alexandr. Halens. Summ. part iv. Pacemdare; concederepacem. Id.ib.
97 In sacramentali absolutione non suffi-
Quaest. xxi. Membr. 1, et Bonaventur.
in iv. Sentent. Distinct, Art. 2. xvm. ceret dicere, Misereatur tui omnipotens

Quaest. i. Deus, vel, Absolutionem et remissionem


91
Quia etsi aliquis apud Deum sit so- tribuat tibi Deus; quia per haec verba
lutus, non tamen in facie ecclesiae solutus sacerdos absolutionem non significat fieri,

habetur, nisi per judicium saeerdotis. sed petit ut fiat. Thorn, part in. Quaest
Pet. Lombard, lib. iv. Sentent. Distinct. LXXXIV. Art. 3. Ad. 1.

H2
116 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

God have mercy upon " God


thee," or, grant unto thee
absolution and forgiveness ;" because, forsooth, " the
priest
by these words doth not signify that the absolution is done,
but entreateth that may be done;" which, how it will
it

accord with the Roman Pontifical, where the form of abso-


lution is laid down prayer-wise, the Jesuits who follow
Thomas may do well to consider.
I pass this over, that in the days not only of 98 St Cyprian,
but of "Alcuinus also, who lived 800 years after Christ, the
reconciliation of penitents was not held to be such a proper
office of the priest, but that a deacon, in his absence, was
allowed to perform the same. The ordinary course that
was held herein, " 10 according to the form of the ancient
Canons," is thus laid down by the Fathers of the Third
Council of Toledo that the priest should " first suspend
:

him that repented of his fault from the Communion, and


make him to have often recourse unto imposition of hands
among the rest of the penitents ; then, when he had fulfilled
the time of his satisfaction, as the consideration of the

priest did approve of it, he should restore him to the Com-


munion."" And this was a constitution of old fathered upon
" 101 should
the that
bishops
apostles, separate those who
said they repented of their sins, for a time determined

according to the proportion of their sin, and afterward


receive them, being penitent, as fathers would do their
children." To this penitential excommunication and abso-
lution belongeth that saying either of St Ambrose or
St Augustine, (for the same Discourse is attributed to them
both :) " 102 He who hath truly performed his repentance,

98
Cyprian. Epist. xiu. TTJV dvaXoyiav TOV a/na/OTij/ictTOs.
99
Alcuin. de Divin. Offic. cap. 13. in 7rpocr\a.fJL(3avarQai, eJs TTC-

capite Jejunii. us. Const. Apost. lib. ii. cap. 16.


109 Ut secundum formam canonum an- 102
egerit veraciter pcenitentiam, et
Qui
tiquorum dentur pcenitentiae, hoc est, ut solutus fuerit a ligamento quo erat con-

prius eum, quern sui poenitet facti, a com-


strictus et a Christi corpore separatus,
munione suspensum, faciat inter reliquos et bene post pcenitentiam vixerit, post

pcenitentes ad manus impositionem crebro reconciliationem cum defunctus fuerit, ad

recurrere; expleto autem satisfactionis Dominum vadit, ad requiem vadit, regno

tempore, sicuti sacerdotalis contemplatio Dei non privabitur, et a populo Diaboli


probaverit, eum communioni restituat. separabitur. Ambros. in Exhortat. ad
Concil. Toletan. in. cap. 11. Pcenitent. August. Homil. XLI. Ex. 50.
101
Tous e<f>' dfiapTiais Xeyoi/Tas fjLe-ra- et inter Caesarii Arelat. Sermones, Homil.

voeiv dtyopi^eiv -yjpovov (apt<rfievov KCLTCC XLIII. et XLIV.


v.] OF THE PRIEST'S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. 117

and is loosed from that bond wherewith he was tied and


separated from the body of Christ, and doth live well after
his repentance, whensoever he shall after his reconciliation

depart this life, he goeth Lord, he goeth to rest, to the


he shall not be deprived of the kingdom of God; and from
the people of the devil he shall be separated." And that
which we read in Anastasius Sinaita: " 103 Bind him, and
till thou hast
appeased God do not let him loose, that he
be not more bound with the wrath of God. For if thou
bindest him not, there remain bonds for him that cannot
be broken. Neither do we enquire, whether the wound
were often bound, but whether the binding hath profited.
If profited, although in a short time, use it no
it hath
longer. Let the measure of the loosing be the profit of
him that is bound." And that exhortation which another
maketh unto the pastors of the Church: " 104 Bind with
separation such as have sinned after baptism, and loose
them again when they have repented, receiving them- as
brethren. For the saying is true, Whatsoever you shall
loose upon earth, shall be loosed in heaven"
That this authority of loosing remaineth still in the

Church, we constantly maintain against the heresy of the


105
Montanists and 106 Novatians, who (upon this pretence,
among others, that God only had power to remit sins) took
away the ministerial power of reconciling such penitents
as had committed heinous sins; denying that the Church
had any warrant to receive them to her communion again,
and to the participation of the holy mysteries, notwithstand-
ing their repentance were ever so sound; which is directly
contrary to the doctrine delivered by St Paul, both in the

103
Atjcrov ovv avTov, KOI ews av et- auTous irpo<roe\6fJievoi. aXrjflrjs yap effTiv

\cuxrrt TOV Qeov, /utj d<pfjs \e\Vfj.evov, 'iva o Xo-yos, "Offa av Xw<rtjTe tirt TTJS y^s,

/UTJ TrXeov deQy TTJ TOV Oeou opyfj. av yap eerrat XeXu/iei/a ev TW ovpavw. Homil. in

dfja-Tj, Ta a/optjKTa au-rov /^c'l/et dcv/jid, I


illud, Qu&cunque ligaveritis, &c. inter
&C. a'XX" ovde yap el TroXXa'/as Opera Chrysost. Tom. vn. edit. Savil.
TO Tpavfjia, tjTou/Aei>, aXX" 17 wi/tjo-e' TI p. 268.
o ^ca/ios 5
el fi6v ca(pe\.rjKe /cat ev 105 Hieron. Epist. LIV. contra Monta-
, p.i]K.eTi Tr/oo<T/c6ir0a). KOL o'pos OUTOS num, et lib. ii. advers. Jovinian. Tertul-
t<TTo) \vcreu>s, TOV Sedefievov TO nepdos. lian. Montanizans. in lib. de Pudicitia,
Anastas. Sinait. Qu.T.st. vi. cap. ult.
04 106
Aj<raTe (i<popt.(r/j.M TOUS /ifTct TO Ambros. lib. i. de Pomit. cap. 2 ;

ftaTTTia-fia dfiapTiirravTas, /cat Socrat. Hist. lib. i.


cap. 7 ; Sozom. lib. i.

k-

aot\</oi/s- cap. 21.


118 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

if a man be overtaken in a fault, they


lol
general, that
who are spiritual should restore such a one in the spirit of
meekness ; and in the particular, of the incestuous Corinthian,
who though he had been excommunicated for such a crime
as was not so much as named amongst the Gentiles,
108

yet upon his repentance, the Apostle telleth the Church


109
that they ought to forgive him, and comfort him, lest
he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Where
that speech of his is
specially noted
and pressed against the
ll
heretics by
ll
St Ambrose:
ye forgive any To whom
thing, I forgive also : for if I forgave any thing, to whom
I forgave it, for your sakes I forgave it in the person of
112
Christ. For as in the name, and by the power of our
Lord Jesus, such a one was delivered to Satan; so 113 God
having given unto him repentance to recover himself out of
the snare of the devil, in the same name and in the same

power was he to be restored again; the ministers of recon-


ciliation standing
114
m
Chrisfs stead, and Christ himself
U5
being in the midst of them that are thus gathered toge-
ther in his name, to bind or loose in heaven whatsoever

they, according to his commission, shall bind or loose on


earth. And here it is to be noted, that Anastasius, (by
some called Nicaenus, by others Sinaita and Antiochenus),
who is so eager against them which say that confession made
unto men
profiteth nothing at all, confesseth yet, that the
minister, in hearing the confession, and instructing and cor-
recting the but give furtherance only thereby
sinner, doth
unto his repentance; but that the pardoning of the sin
the proper work of God. " 116 For
is man," saith he,
"
co-operateth with man unto repentance, and ministereth,
and buildeth, and instructeth, and reproveth in things be-
longing unto salvation, according to the Apostle and the
Prophet; but God blotteth out the sins of those that have

107 116
Galat. vi. 1. "AvQptaTTos yap dvOpwirto vvvep-
fjLfif

108 i Cor. v. 1. yel Kal umj/oeTet, Kal ol-


ets fJLerdvoiav,
w 2 Cor. ii. J. Ko8op.ei, Kal iratdeuei Kal e\ey%ei TO. irpos
110 Ambros. de Pcenit. lib. i.
cap. 16. arwrrjpiav, KCLTO. TOV aTroo-ToXov Kai TOV
111
2 Cor. ii. 10. Trpo<j>i')TTiv' o <5e 0eos ea\ei(f)ei TCCS d/map-
112
1 Cor. v. 4, 5. Tias TWV e^ofJLO\oyovfj.ev(av, \ey<av, 'Eyca
113
2 Tim. 6 ea\ei(f)u)v Tas dvo/miav crov eve/cei/
ii. 25, 26. el/u.1

114
2 Cor. v. 20. efjiov, Kal Tas ct/u.a/0-rtas crov, Kal oil /ut;

115
Matt, xviii. 18, 20. Anastas. Quaest. vi.
THE PRIEST'S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. 119

confessed, saying, / am he that blotteth out thine iniquities

for mine own sake, and thy sins, and will not remember
them."
There followeth now another part of the ministry of
reconciliation, consisting in the due administration of the
sacraments; which being the proper seals of the promises
of the Gospel, as the censures are of the threats, must there-
fore necessarily also have reference to the ^remission of
118
sins. we And so see the ancient Fathers do hold, that the

commission, John xx. 23, Whose sins ye remit, they are


remitted unto them, &c. is executed by the ministers of
Christ, as well in the conferring of baptism, as in the recon-
ciling of penitents; yet so
in both these, and in all the
I19
sacraments likewise of both the Testaments, that the

ministry only is to be accounted man's, but the power


" 120 it is one
God's. For, as St Augustine well observeth,
thing to baptize by way of ministry, another thing to bap-
" 121
tize by way of power:" the power of baptizing the
Lord retaineth to himself, the ministry he hath given to
his servants:" " 122
the power of the Lord's baptism was
to pass from the Lord
to no man, but the ministry was :

the power was to be transferred from the Lord unto none


of his ministers; the ministry was both unto the good and
unto the bad." And the reason which he assigneth hereof
is
" 123
that the hope of the baptized might be
very good :

in him by whom they did acknowledge themselves to have


been baptized. The Lord therefore would not have a
servant to put his hope in a servant." And therefore
those schoolmen argued not much amiss, that gathered this

"7 Acts ii. 38; Matt. xxvi. 28. sterium, aliud baptizare per potestatem.
Cyprian. Epist. LXXVI. sect. 4 edit.
118 in Evang. Johan. Tract, v.
Aug.
Pamelii, 8 Goulartii; Cyril. Alexandr.
121
Sibi tenuit Dominus baptizandi po-
in Johan. lib. xii. cap. 56; Ambros. de testatem, servis ministerium dedit. Id. ib.
122
Poenitent. lib. i.
cap. 7 ; Chrysost. de Sa- Potestatem Dominici baptismi in
cerdot. lib. iii. Tom. vi. edit. Savil. p. 17, nullum hominem a Domino transituram,
lin. 25; vide et Tom. vn. p. 268, lin. 37. sed ministerium plane transiturum ; po-
119
August. Quaest. in Levitic. cap. testatem a Domino in neminem ministro-
Lxxxiv. ; Optat. lib. v. contra Donatist. ; rum, ministerium et in bonos et in malos.

Chrysost. in Matt. xxvi. Homil. LXXXII. Id. ibid.


123
edit. Graec. vel LXXXIII. Latin.; in Hoc noluit ideo ut in illo spes esset
1 Cor. iii. Homil. vni.; et in 2 Tim. i. baptizatorum, a quo se baptizatos agnosce-
Homil. ii. circa finem. rent. Noluit ergo servum ponere spem in
120 Id. ibid.
Aliud enim est baptizare per mini- servo.
120 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAF.

conclusion thence: is
u m lt
a matter of equal power to
baptize inwardly, and to absolve from mortal sin but it ;

was not fit that God should communicate the power of bap-
tizing inwardly unto any, lest our hope should be reposed
in man. Therefore, by the same reason, it was not fit
that he communicate the power of absolving from
should
1'
actual sin So Bernard, or whosoever was the
unto any.
author of the book entitled Scala Paradisi: " 125 The office
of baptizing the Lord granted unto many, but the power
and authority of remitting sins in baptism he retained unto
himself alone: whence John, by way of singularity and
differencing, said of him, He it is which bapti%eth with
the Holy Ghost" And the Baptist indeed doth make a
singular difference betwixt the conferrer of the external
and the internal baptism, in saying, 126 7 baptize with water,
but it is he which baptixeth with the Holy Ghost. While
John " 127 did his service, God did who faileth not in give,
giving: and now when all others do their service, the ser-
vice is man's, but the gift is God's," saith Optatus. And
Arnaldus Bonaevallensis, the author of the twelve treatises
de Cardinalibus
Operibus Christi, falsely ascribed to St
Cyprian, touching the Sacraments in general: "^Forgive-
ness of sins, whether it be given by baptism or by other
sacraments, is properly of the Holy Ghost and the privi- ;

lege of effecting this remaineth to him alone."


129
But the word of reconciliation is it wherein the apostle
doth especially place that ministry of reconciliation, which
the Lord hath committed to his ambassadors here upon
earth. This is that key of knowledge, which 130 doth both

124 127 dabat Deus, qui dando


Paris potestatis est interius baptizare, Illo operante
eta culpa mortal! absolvere. Sed Deus non Et nunc operantibus cunctis,
deficit.

non debuit potestatem baptizandi interius humana sunt opera, sed Dei sunt munera.
communicare, ne spes poneretur in ho- Optat. lib. v. contra Donatist.
128
mine ergo pari ratione nee potestatem
: Remissio peccatorum, sive per bap-
absolvendi ab actuali. Alexand. de Hales. tismum sive per alia sacramenta done-
Summ. part iv. Quaest. xxi. Memb. 1. tur, proprie Spiritus Sancti est; et ipsi

Officium baptizandi Dominus con-


125 solihujus efficientiae privilegium manet.
cessit multis, potestatem vero et auctori- Arnald. Abbas Bonasvallis, Tract, de
tatem in baptismo remittendi peccata sibi Baptismo Christi.
129
soli retinuit unde Johannes antonomas-
: 2 Cor. v. 18, 19.
130 Clavis quae et conscientiam adconfes-
tice et discretive de eo dixit, Hie est qui
baptizat in Spiritu Sancto. Seal. Paradis. sionem peccati aperit, et gratiam ad aeterni-

cap. 3, Tom. ix. Operum Augustini. tatemmysteriisalutarisincludit. Maxim.


Mark i. 8; John i-
26, 33. Taurin. de Natali Petri et Pauli, Horn. v.
v.] OF THE PRIEST'S POWER TO FOJUJIVE tins. 1:21

" the conscience to the confession of and include


open sin,
therein the grace mystery unto eternity;""
of the healthful
as Maximus Taurinensis speaketh of it. This is that power-
ful means which God hath sanctified for the washing away
of the pollution of our souls. Now ye are clean, saith our
131
Saviour to his apostles, through the word which I have
spoken unto you. And whereas every transgressor is
~holden cords of his own sins, the apostles,
with the

according commission
to given unto them by their
the
Master, that whatsoever they should loose on earth, should
be loosed in heaven, did loose those cords " by the word
of God, and the testimonies of the Scriptures, and exhor-
tation unto virtues," as
133
saith St Jerome. Thus likewise
doth St Ambrose sins are remitted by the
that " 134
note,
word of God, whereof the Levite was an interpreter and
a kind of an executor;" and in that respect concludeth,
that " 135 the Levite was a minister of this remission." As
lx
the Jewish scribes therefore, by taking away the key of
knowledge, did shut up the kingdom of heaven against
men; so 137 every scribe which is instructed unto the king-
dom of heaven, by 138 opening unto his hearers the door of
faith doth as it were unlock that kingdom unto
them;
139
being the instrument of God herein o open men's eyes,
and turn them from darkness to light, and from the
to

power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgive-


ness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanc-
tified by faith in Christ. And here are we to understand that
the ministers of Christ, by applying the word of God unto
the consciences of men, both in public and in private, do

discharge that part of their function which concerneth for-


giveness of sins, partly operatively, partly declaratively.

131
John xv. 13. Vide Ephes. v. 26; Hieronym. lib. vi. Comment, in Esai.
et August, in Evangel. Johan. Tract. cap. xiv.
134
LXXX. Remittuntur peccata per Dei ver-
132
prov . y. 22.
j
bum, cujus Levites interpres et quidam
33
Funibus peccatorum suorum unus- executor est. Ambros. de Abel et Cain,
quisque constringitur. Quos funes atque lib. ii. cap. 4.
135
vincula solvere possunt et apostoli imi- Levites igitur minister remissionis
tantes magistrum suum qui eis dixerat, est. Id. ibid.
**
Quaecunque solveritis super terram, erunt , Luke xi. 52, compared with Matt.
soluta et in ccelo. Solvunt autem eos xxiii. 13.
l38
apostoli sermone
i7
Dei, et testimoniis
'
Matt. xiii. ."_'. Acts xiv. 27.

Bcriptumum, et cxhortationc virtutum. .\ct> xxvi. U>.


122 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

Operatively, inasmuch as God is pleased to use their preach-


14
ing of the Gospel as a means of conferring his Spirit upon
141
the sons of men, of begetting them in Christ, and of
142
working faith and repentance in them whereby the remis- ;

U3
sion of sins is obtained.
preaching the bap- Thus John
tism of repentance for the remission of sins, and teaching
lu
the people, that they should believe on him which should
come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus, is said to U5 turn
many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and
disobedient U6 the wisdom
the of the just, by
to giving
knowledge of salvation to God's people, unto the remission
of their sins. Not because he had properly any power
given him to turn men's hearts, and to work faith and
repentance for forgiveness of sins, when and where he thought
good but because he was trusted with the ministry of the
;

147
word of God's grace, which is able to convert and quicken
men's souls, and to give them an inheritance among all
them which are sanctified. By the powerful application of
which word, U8 he who converteth the sinner from the error
of his way, is said to save a soul from death, and to hide
a multitude of sins. For howsoever in true propriety
149
the covering of sins, the saving from death, and turning
of men from their iniquities, is a privilege peculiar to the
Lord our God, unto whom alone it appertaineth to ^recon-
cile the world to himself, by not imputing their sins unto

them; yet inasmuch as he hath committed unto his ambas-


I5l
sadors the word of reconciliation, they, in performing
that work of their ministry, may be as rightly said to be

employed in reconciling men unto God, and procuring


152
remission of their sins, as they are said to deliver a
man from going down into the pit, when they declare
I53
unto righteousness, and to
him his save their hearers,
lM
vhen they preach unto them the Gospel, by which they
are saved.

148
140 Acts x. 44 ; Gal. iii. 2 ; 2 Cor.iii. 6. James v. 20.
149
141
1 Cor. iv. 15 ; Gal. iv. 19. Rom. iv. 6, 7; Jer. xxxi. 18; Rev.
142
Rom. x. 17; John xvii. 20; 1 Cor. i. 18 ; 1 Thess. i. 10 ; Acts iii. 26 ; Matt.
iii. 5 ; Acts xiv. 27, and xxvi. 18, 20. i. 21.
143 144 iso I51
Mark i. 4. Acts xix. 4. 2 Cor. v. 19. Ibid.
145 146 152
Luke i. 16, 17. Ibid. vers. 77. Job xxxiii. 23, 24.
147 Acts xx. 32 ; Psal. xix. 7> and cxix. ^ l Tim. iv. 16.
154
50, 93. 1 Cor. xv. 1,2; Acts xi. 14.
v.]
OF THE PRIEST'S POWER TO FORGIVE si\s. 123

For as the word itself which they speak is said to be


155 }M
their word, which yet is in truth the word of God; so
the work which is
effectually wrought by that word in
them that believe, is said to be their work, though in truth
it be the proper work of God. And as they that believe
by their word are said to be their epistle, 2 Cor. iii. 2,
that is to say, the epistle of Christ ministered by them,
as it is
expounded verse following; in like man-in the
ner forgiveness of sins, and those other great graces that
appertain to the believers, may be said to be their work,
that isto say, the work of Christ ministered by them. For
in very deed, as Optatus speaketh in the matter of bap-
" 157 not the
tism, minister, but the faith of the believer,
and the Trinity, do bring these things unto every man."
And where the preaching of the Gospel doth prove I5s the
power of God unto salvation, only the weakness of the
external ministry must be ascribed to men; but I59 the excel-

lency of the power must ever be acknowledged to be of God,


and not of them: neither he that planteth being here
any thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth
the increase. For howsoever in respect of the former, such
as take pains in the Lord's husbandry may be accounted
0eov awepyoi, as the 161 Apostle termeth them, labourers
together with God, (though that little piece of service itself
162
also be not performed
by their own strength, but accord-
ing to the grace of God which is given unto them) ; yet
" 163 that which of giving the increase, God effecteth
followeth,
not by them, but by himself. This," saith St Augustine,
" exceedeth the lowliness of
man, this exceedeth the subli-
mity of angels; neither appertaineth unto any, but unto
the husbandman, the Trinity."
Now, as the Spirit of God doth not only
m work diver-
of graces in us, distributing to every man severally
sities

as he will, but also maketh us to I6b know the things that

165
John xvii. 20. 163
Jam vero quod sequitur, Sed Deus
156
1 Thess. ii. 13. incrementum dedit, non per illos, sed per
157 Has res unicuique non ejusdem rei seipsum facit. Excedit hoc humanam
operarius, sed credentis fides et Trinitas humilitatem, excedit angelicam sublimi-
prsestat. Optat. lib. v. 18, contra Donatist. tatem, nee omnino pertinet nisi ad agrico-
158
Rom. i. 16; 1 Cor. i. 18. lam, Trinitatem. Aug. in Evang. Johan.
159
2 Cor. iv. 7. 16
1 Cor. iii. 7- Tract. LXXX.
161 162 165
Ibid. vers. 9. Ibid. vers. 10. I
1 Cor. xii. 11. 1 Cor. ii. 12.
ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

are freely given to us of God ; so the ministers of the New


6
Testament, being made able ministers of the same Spirit,
are not only ordained to be God's instruments to work
faith and repentance in men, for the obtaining of remission
of sins, but also to declare God's pleasure unto such as
believe and repent; and in his name to certify them, and

give assurance to their consciences, that their sins are for-

given, ministry of the Lord


they having ^"received this
Jesus Gospel of the grace of God, and so by
to testify the
their function being appointed to be witnesses rather than
conferrers of that grace. For it is here with them in the
loosing, as it is in the binding part of their ministry, where
they are brought in, like unto those seven angels in the
book of the Revelation, 168 which pour out the vials of the
wrath of God upon the earth, 169 having vengeance ready
against all disobedience, and a charge from God to cast
men out of his sight; not because they are properly the
title God
171
avengers, for that challengeth unto himself, or
172
that vengeance did any way appertain unto them, (for it

is written, Vengeance is mine ; I will repay, saith the Lord,)

but because they were the denouncers, not the inflicters, of


this vengeance. So though it be the Lord that r>z speaketh
concerning a nation, to pluck up, and to pull down, and
to destroy, or on the other side, to build and to plant it ;

yet he
174
in whose mouth God put those words of his, is

said to be set by him over the nations, and over the king-
doms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to
throw down, to build, and to plant; as if he himself were
a doer of those great matters, who was only
r* ordained to
be a prophet unto the nations, to speak the things unto
them which God had commanded him. Thus likewise in
the thirteenth of Leviticus, where the laws are set down
that concern the leprosy, which was a type of the pollution
~
l 6
of sin, we meet often with these speeches the priest :

I71
shall cleanse him, and the priest shall pollute him, and
in the 44th verse, the priest with pollution shall pollute

166 167
1 Cor. iii. 6. Acts xx. 14. KOL KaQapiel airrov o
168 169
Rev. xvi. 1. 2 Cor. x. 6.
170 Jer. xv. 1. 171
Psal. xciv. 1. TK72ia
s
/cat fJLiavel avTOV o
172 Rom. xii. 19; Heb. x. 30. te/oeus.
173 178
Jer. xviii. 7, 9. '0'0 /xtai/trti /xiaj/el
174 Jer. i.
9, 10.
175 Ibid. vers. 5, 7- aurov o e/otus.
1
OF I'HK I'RTEST S I'OWKK TO FORGIVE SINS. 1 '2 -I

him 1T9 " that he is the author of the


; not, saith St
Jerome,
pollution, but that he declareth him to be polluted who
before did seem unto many to have been clean." Where-
upon the Master of the sentences (following herein St Jerome,
and being afterwards therein followed himself by many others)
observeth, that " 180 in
remitting or the retaining sins, priests
of the Gospel have that right and office which the legal
priests had of old under the law in curing of the lepers.
These therefore,'" saith he, " forgive sins or retain them,
whilst they shew and declare, that they are forgiven or
retained by God. For the priests put the name of the
Lord upon the children of Israel, but it was he himself that
blessed them, as it is read in Numbers." The place that
he hath reference unto is in the sixth chapter of that
book, where the priests are commanded to bless the people
by saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, &c. and then it
followeth in the last verse of that chapter : So they shall put
my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.
Neither do we grant hereupon, as the W1 adversary falsely
" a
chargeth us, that layman, yea, or a woman, or a child,
or any infidel, or the devil," the father of all calumniators
" or a
and liars, parrot likewise, if he be taught the words,
182
may as well absolve as the priest." As if the speech were
all the thing that here were to be considered, and not the

power ; where we are taught, that the kingdom of God is


not in word 9 but in power. Indeed, if the priests by their
officebrought nothing with them but the ministry of the
bare letter, a parrot peradventure might be taught to sound
that letter as well as they but we believe, that 183 God hath
;

made them able ministers of the New Testament, not of


the letter, but of the Spirit: and that the Gospel minis-
tered by them ^cometh unto us not in word only, but also
l

179
Contaminatione contaminabit eum, cata dimittunt vel retinent, dum dimissa
baud dubium, quin sacerdos, non quo con- a Deo vel retenta indicant et ostendunt.
taminationis auctor sit, sed quo ostendat Ponunt enim sacerdotes nomen Domini
eum contaminatum qui prius mundus plu- super filios Israel, sed ipse benedixit,
rimis videbatur. Hieron. lib. vii. in Esai. sicut legitur in Numeris. Petr. Lombard,
cap. xxiii. lib. iv. Sentent. Dist. xiv. f.

180 181
In remittendis vel in retinendis cul- Bellarmin. de Pcenitent. lib. iii.

habent Evangelici
pis id juris et officii cap. 2, sect. ult.
182 183
sacerdotes, quod olim habebant sub lege 1 Cor. iv. 19, 20. 2 Cor. iii. (5.

184
legales in curandis leprosis. Hi ergo pec- 1 Thess. i. 5.
126 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.


For God hath added a special 185 beauty to the feet of them
that preach the Gospel of peace; that howsoever others may

bring glad tidings of good things to the penitent sinner,


as truly as they do, yet neither can they do it with the
same authority, neither is it to be expected that they should
do it with such power, such assurance, and such full satis-
faction to the afflicted conscience. The speech of every
Christian, we know, should be employed I86 to the use of
edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers ;

and a private brother in his place may deliver sound doc-


trine, reprehend vice, exhort to righteousness, very commen-
dably; yet hath the Lord, notwithstanding all this, for
the necessary use of his Church, appointed public officers
to do the same things, and hath given unto them a peculiar
lS7
power for edification, wherein they may boast above
others, and in the due execution whereof God is pleased
to make them instruments of ministering a more plentiful
measure of grace unto their hearers than may be ordinarily
looked for from others. These men are appointed to be
of God's high commission and therefore they may 188 speak,;

and exhort, and rebuke with all authority : they are God?s
189 19
angels and ambassadors for Christ, and therefore, in
delivering their message, are to be
m received as an angel
of God, yea, as Christ Jesus: that look how the prophet
192
Isaiah was comforted when the angel said unto him, Thine
iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged; and the poor
woman in the Gospel, when Jesus said unto her, 193 Thy sins
are forgiven ; the like consolation doth the distressed sinner
receive from the mouth of the minister, when he hath com-
pared the truth of God's word faithfully delivered by him,
with the work of God's grace in his own heart; according
to that of Elihu :
m
lf there be an angel or a messenger
with him, an interpreter, one of a thousand, to declare
unto man his righteousness ; then will God have mercy
upon him, and say, Deliver him from going down into the
pit, I have received a reconciliation. For as it is the office

185 186 190 191


Rom. x. 15. Ephes. iv. 29. 2 Cor. v. 20. Gal. iv. 14.
192 193
187 2 Cor. x. 8, and xiii. 10. Isai. vi. 7. Luke vii. 48.
188 194
Tit. ii. 15. 189
Rev. i. 20. Job xxxiii. 23, 24.
I
OF THE PRIEST'S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. 127

of this messenger and interpreter, to 5 pray us in Chrisfs


stead that we would be reconciled to God; so when we have
listenedunto this motion, and submitted ourselves to the
Gospel of peace, it is a part of his office likewise to declare
unto us in Christ's stead, that we are reconciled to God;
and 1%
m him Christ himself must be acknowledged to speak,
who to us-ward, by this means, is not weak, but is mighty

in us.
But our new masters will not content themselves with
such a ministerial power of forgiving sins as hath been spoken
of, unless we
yield that they have authority so to do properly,
directly, ; that is, unless we acknowledge that
and absolutely
their high priest sitteth in the temple of God as God, and
all his creatures as so
many demi-gods under him. For we
a i97 must sa " jf we w ju k e drunk with the " that
y ? drunken,
in this high priest there is the fulness of all graces, because
he alone giveth a full indulgence of all sins; that this may
agree unto him, which we say of the chief prince our Lord,
that of his fulness all we have received." Nay, we must
acknowledge, that the meanest in the whole army of priests,
that followeth this king of pride, hath such fulness of power
derived unto him for the opening and shutting of heaven
before men, " that is denied to them whom
198
forgiveness
the priest will not forgive;" and his absolution on the
other side is a sacramental act, which conferreth grace by
the work wrought, that is, as they 199 expound it, " actively,
and immediately, and instrumentally effecteth the grace of
" 200 as the wind
justification" in such as receive it: that
doth extinguish the fire and dispel the clouds, so doth the
priest's absolution scatter sins, and make them to vanish

away ;" the sinner being thereby immediately acquitted


before God, howsoever that sound conversion of heart be

95 196 198
2 Cor. v. 20. 2 Cor. xiii. 3. Negatur remissio illis quibus no-
197
Oportet dicere, in summo pontifice luerint sacerdotes remittere. Bellar. de
esse plenitudinem omnium gratiarum, Poenit. lib. iii. cap. 2.
199
quia ipse solus confert plenam indulgen- Active et proximo atque instru-
tiam omnium peccatorum, ut competat mentaliter efficit gratiam justificationis.
sibi, quod de primo principe Domino di- Id. de Sacrament, in genere, lib. ii. cap. 1.
200 Ut flatus
cimus, quia de plenitudineejusnosomnes extinguit ignem et dissi-
accepimus. De Regimine Principum, pat nebulas, sic etiam absolutio sacerdotis
lib. iii. cap. 10, inter Opuscula Thomze, peccata dispergit, et evanescere facit. Id.
Num. 20. de Poenit. lib iii.
cap. 2.
128 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

wanting him, which otherwise would be requisite.


in For
01
absolution, upon such terms as these, "If
a conditional
thou dost believe and repent as thou oughtest to do," is,
in these men's judgment, to no
purpose, and can give no
security to the penitent ; seeing it
dependeth upon an
uncertain condition. Have we not then just cause to say
202
unto them, as
Optatus did unto the Donatists? Nolite
vobis majestatis dominium vendicare. " Intrude not
upon
the royal prerogative of our Lord and Master." No man
203
may challenge this absolute power of the keys, but he that
hath the key of David, that openeth and no man shutteth,
and shutteth and no man openeth; he to whom 204 the
Father hath given power over all flesh, yea, all power
^
in heaven and in earth ; even the eternal Son of God,
who hath in his hands 206 the keys of death, and is able to
207
quicken whom he will.
The ministers of the
Gospel may not meddle with the
matter of sovereignty, and think that
they have power to
proclaim war or conclude peace betwixt God and man
according to their own discretion they must remember that :

208
they are ambassadors for Christ, and therefore in this
treaty are to proceed according to the instructions which

they have received from their sovereign ; which if they


do transgress, they go beyond their commission therein ;

they do not Trpeafievetv but and their


Trapcnrpecrfieveiv,
authority for so much is plainly void. The bishop, saith
St Gregory, and the Fathers in the Council of Aquisgran
(( 209
following in loosing and binding those that are
him,
under his charge, doth follow oftentimes the motions of his
own will, and not the merit of the causes. Whence it
cometh to pass, that he depriveth himself of this power of
binding and loosing, who doth exercise the same according
to his own will, and not according to the manners of them
which be subject unto him." That is to say, he maketh
himself worthy to be deprived of that power which he hath

201 Id. ibid. sect, penult. ditis suse voluntatis motus, non autem
202 lib. v. 203 Rev. iii. causarum merita sequitur. Unde fit, ut
Optat. 1.
204 John 20S
xvii.2. Matt, xxviii. 18. ipsa hac ligandi et solvendi potestate se
206
Rev. i. 18. privet, qui hanc pro suis voluntatibus,
207 John v. 21 . et non pro subjectorum moribus exercet.
208 2 Cor. v. 20. Greg, in Evangel. Homil. xxvi. Concil.
209
Saepe in solvendis ac ligandis sub- Aquisgran. sub Ludovico Pio, cap. 37 .
V. OF THE PRIEST S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. 129

21
thus abused, (as the Master of the sentences, and 211 Semeca
in his gloss upon Gratian, would have St
Gregory ""s meaning
to be expounded,) and pro tanto, as hath been said,
actually
voideth himself of this power; this unrighteous judgment of
his given upon earth being no ways ratified, but
absolutely
disannulled, in the court of heaven. For he who by his
~ }2
office is
appointed to be a minister of the word of truth,
213
hath no power given him to do any thing against the
truth, but for the truth ; neither is it to be imagined that
the sentence of man, who is subject to deceive and be
deceived, should
any ways prejudice the sentence of God,
214
whose judgment we know to be always according to the
truth. Therefore doth Pacianus, in the end of his first
epistle to Sympronianus the Novatian, shew, that at that
215
time absolution was not so easily given unto penitents as

now-a-days it is; but " 216 with great pondering of the matter
and with great deliberation, after many sighs and shedding
of tears, after the prayers of the whole Church, pardon was
so not denied unto true repentance, that Christ
being to
judge, no man should prejudge him." And a little before,
speaking of the bishop, by whose ministry this was done;
" 217 He shall
give an account," saith he, "if he have done
any thing amiss, or if he have judged corruptly and wickedly.
Neither is there
any prejudice done unto God, whereby he
might not undo the works of this evil builder; but in the
meantime, if that administration of his be godly, he continueth
a helper of the works of God." Wherein he doth but tread
in the steps of St Cyprian, who at the first rising of the
Novatian heresy wrote in the same manner unto Antonianus:
218
We
do not prejudice the Lord that is to judge, but

210
Qui indignos ligat vel solvit, propria mine, post multos gemitus effusionemque
potestate se privat, id est, dignum priva- lacrymarum, post totius ecclesiae pieces, ita
tione se facit. Petr. Lombard, lib. iv. veniam verse pcenitentiae non negari, ut ju-
Sentent. Dist. xvui. C. dicaturo Christo nemo praejudicet. Ibid.
211 217
Privat, id est, meretur privari. Jo. Reddet quidem ille rationem, si quid
Semeca, Gloss. Grat. Caus. 11. Quapst.m. perperam fecerit, vel si
corrupte et impie
cap. 60, Ipse ligandi. judicarit. Nee praejudicatur Deo, quo
212
Ephes. i. 13; James i. 18. minus mali aedificatorisopera rescindat :

913 214
2 Cor. xiii. 8. Rom. ii. 2. interea, si pia ilia administrate est, ad-
215
Scio, frater, hanc ipsam pcenitentise jutor Dei operum perseverat. Id. ibid.
veniam non passim omnibus dari, &c. 918
Neque enim prsejudicamus Domino
Pacian. Epist. i. judicaturo, quo minus si pcenitentiam ple-
16
Magno pondere magnoque libra- nam et justam peccatoris invenerit, tune
I
130 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

that he, if he find the repentance of the sinner to be full


and just, he may then ratify that which shall be here ordained
by us; but if
any one do deceive us with the semblance of
repentance, God (who is not mocked, and who beholdeth the
heart of man,) may judge of those things which we did not
well discern, and the Lord may amend the sentence of the
servants."

Hereupon St Jerome, expounding those words, Daniel iv. 24,


It may be God will pardon thy sins, reproveth those men of

great rashness that are so peremptory and absolute in their


absolutions. " 219 When blessed " who knew
Daniel," saith he,
things to come, doth doubt of the sentence of God, they do a
rash deed that boldly promise pardon unto sinners." St Basil
also resolveth us, that "
220
the power of forgiving is not given

absolutely, but upon the obedience of the penitent, and his


consent with him that hath the care of his soul." For it is
" 221 Thou hast
in loosing as it is in binding. begun to esteem
brother as a saith St " thou bindest
thy publican," Augustine,
him upon earth ; but look that thou bindest him justly. For
unjust bonds justice doth break." So when the priest saith,
" I absolve
thee," Maldonat confesseth that he meaneth no
more thereby but " 222 As much as in me lieth, I absolve thee;"
and Suarez acknowledgeth that it implicitly includeth this con-
" 2a3 Unless the receiver
dition, put some impediment ;" for
which he allegeth the authority of St Hugo de St Victory,
ii. de Sacramentis,
" 224 that this
lib. p. 14, sect. 8, affirming,
form doth rather signify the power and virtue, than the event,"
of the absolution. And therefore doth the Master of the sen-

ratum faciat quod a nobis fuerit hie sta- /j.e\ovfj.evov UUTOV TTJS \]/v)(?}s. Basil.
tutum ; si vero nos aliquis pcenitentiae Regul. Brevior. Quaest. xv.
non 221
simulatione deluserit, Deus, qui Ccepisti habere fratrem tuum tan-
deridetur, et qui cor hominis intuetur, de quam publicanum ligas ilium in terra.
:

his quse nos minus perspeximus judicet, Sed ut juste alliges, vide : nam injusta
et servorum sententiam Dominus emendet. vincula dirumpit justitia. August, de
Cypr. Epist. LII. sect. 11, edit. Goulart. Verbis Domini, Serm. xvi. cap. 4.
222
219
Cum beatus Daniel, prsescius futu- Quantum in me est, ego te absolvo.
rorum, de sententia Dei dubitet, rem Maldonat. Tom. n.dePcenitent.part. HI.
temerariam faciunt, qui audacter pecca- Thes. 5.
223
toribus indulgentiam pollicentur. Hie- Nisi suscipiens obicem ponat. Fr.

ronym. in Daniel, cap. iv. Suarez. in Thorn. Tom. iv. Disp. xix.
220 'jj e ova-i a T0 y
dtyievai OVK diroXv- sect. 2, Num. 20.
224
TWS SeSoTai, d\\' ev virctKofj TOW fJieTa- Hanc formam magis significare vir-

KOOUI/TOS, Kai (rvfJi(j)(avia Trpos TOV eTTt- tutem suam, quam eventum. Hugo.
I
OF THE PRIEST S POWEll TO FORGIVE SINS. 131

tences rightly observe, that " 225 God doth not evermore follow
the judgment of the Church, which sometimes judgeth
by
surreption and ignorance ; whereas God doth always judge
according to the truth." So the priests " ^'sometime declare
men to be loosed or bound who are not so before God : with
the penalty of satisfaction or excommunication they sometime
bind such as are unworthy, or loose them ; they admit them
that be unworthy to the sacraments, and put back them that
be worthy to be admitted." That saying therefore of Christ
must be understood to be verified " in them," saith he, " whose
merits do require that they should be loosed or bound. For
then the sentence of the priest approved and confirmed by
is

the judgment of God and the whole court of heaven, when


it doth proceed with that discretion, that the merits of them
who be dealt withal do not contradict the same: whomsoever
therefore they do loose or bind, using the
key of discretion
according to the parties' merits, they are loosed or bound in
heaven, that is to say, with God ; because the sentence of
the priest, proceeding in this manner, is
approved and con-
firmed by divine judgment." Thus far the Master of the
sentences, who is followed herein by the rest of the school-
men, who generally agree that the power of binding and
loosing, committed to the ministers of the Church, is not
absolute, but must be limited with clave non errante, as
227
being then only of force when matters are carried with
right judgment, and no error is committed in the use of
the keys.
Our Saviour, therefore, must still have the privilege
reserved unto him of being the absolute Lord over his own

225
Ita et hie aperte ostenditur, quod non curias approbatur et confirmatur, cum ita

semper sequitur Deus ecclesiae judicium ; ex discretione procedit, ut reorum merita


quae per surreptionem et ignorantiam in- non contradicant. Quoscunque ergo sol-
terdum judicat Deus autem semper judi-
; vunt vel ligant, adhibentes clavem dis-
cat secundum veritatem. Petr. Lombard. cretionis reorum mentis, solvuntur vel
Sentent. lib. iv. Distinct, xvin. f.
ligantur in ccelis, id est, apud Deum ;
926
Aliquando enim ostendunt solutos quia divino judicio sacerdotis sententia
vel ligatos, qui ita non sunt apud Deum ; sic progressa approbatur et confirmatur.
et pcena satisfactionis vel excommunica- Id. ibid. h. Vide Gabriel. Biel, in eand.
tionis interdum indignos ligant vel sol- Distinct, xvin. Quaest. i.lit. b.
vunt ; et
indignos sacramentis admittunt,
227
Quod in terra sacerdos, clave non
et dignos admitti arcent. Sed intelligen- et recto
errante, judicio procedens, re-
dum est hoc in illis, quorum merita solvi tinet, nee dimittit; Deus etiam in ccelo
vel ligari postulant. Tune enim sententia retinet, nee dimittit. Tolet. Comment
sacerdotis judicio Dei et totius ccelestis in Johan. xx.
132 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

house: it is sufficient for his officers that


they be esteemed
2 ~8
as Moses was, faithful in all his house as servants. The
place wherein they serve is a steward's place ; and the
22
Apostle telleth them, *that it is required in stewards, that
the man be
faithful. They may not, therefore, carry
found
themselves in their office as the unjust steward did, and
m
presume to strike out their Master's debt without his direc-
tion and contrary to his liking. Now, we know that our
Lord hath given no authority unto his stewards to grant an
acquittance unto any of his debtors, that bring not unfeigned
faith and repentance with them. " 231 Neither
angel nor arch-
" the Lord
angel can," neither yet himself, (who alone can
say, I am with you,) when we have sinned, doth release us,
unless we bring repentance with us," saith St Ambrose; and
Eligius, bishop of Noyon, in his sermon unto the penitents :

" 2S2 Before all


things it is necessary you should know, that
howsoever you desire to receive the imposition of our hands,
yet you cannot obtain the absolution of your sins before the
divine piety shall vouchsafe to absolve you by the grace
of compunction." To think, therefore, that it lieth in the
power of any priest truly to absolve a man from his sins,
without of " and
implying the condition his believing
repenting as he ought to do," is both presumption and
madness in the highest degree. Neither dareth Cardinal
Bellarmine, who censureth this conditional absolution in us
for and superfluous, when he hath considered better
idle
of the matter, assume unto himself, or communicate unto
his brethren, the power of giving an absolute one. For he
is driven to confess, with others of his fellows, that when
" 233 " doth not affirm
the priest saith, I absolve thee," he

229
Eligius Noviomens. Homil. xi. Tom.
228
Heb. x. 5, 6. 1 Cor. iv. 2. tur.

Luke xvi. 68.


230 vn. Biblioth. Patr. p. 248. edit. Colon.
231
Nee angelus potest, nee archangelus :
233
Nam qui dicit, Ego te baptize, vel
Dominus ipse, (qui solus potest dicere, Ego absolvo, non affirmat se absolute baptizare
vobiscum sum,) sipeccaverimus, nisi preni- vel absolvere, cum non ignoret, multis
tentiam deferentibus non relaxat. Ambr. modis fieri posse, ut neque baptizet, neque

Epist. xxviu. ad Theodosium Imp. absolvat, licet ea verba pronunciet; ni-


232
Ante omnia autem vobis scire necesse mirum si is, qui sacramentum suscipere

est,quia licet impositionem manuum nos- videtur, forte non habeat suscipiendi in-
trarum accipere cupiatis, tamen absolutio- tentionem, vel non sit rite dispositus, aut
nem peccatorum vestrorum consequi non obicem ponat. Igitur minister illis verbis
nihil aliud significat, nisi se, quod in se
potestis, antequam per compunctionis gra-
tiam divina pietas vos absolvere dignabi- est, sacramentum reconciliationis vel ab-
V. OF THE PRIEST S POWER TO FORGIVE SIXS. 133

that he doth absolve absolutely, as not being ignorant that


it
may many ways come to pass that he doth not absolve,
although he pronounce those words; namely, if he who
seemeth to receive this sacrament" (for so they call it)
"
peradventure hath no intention to receive it, or is not rightly
disposed, or putteth some block in the way. Therefore the
"
minister," saith he, signifieth nothing else
by those words,
but that he, as much as in him lieth, conferreth the sacra-
ment of reconciliation or absolution, which in a man rightly
disposed hath virtue to forgive all his sins."

Now, that contrition is at all times necessarily required


for obtaining remission of sins and justification, is a matter
determined by the Fathers of 234 Trent. But mark yet the
mystery. They equivocate with us in the term of contrition,
and make a distinction thereof into perfect and imperfect.
The former of these is contrition properly : the latter they
call attrition, which, howsoever in itself it be not true con-
trition, yet when the
priest, with his power of forgiving
sins, interposeth himself in the business, they tell us that
" 235 attrition virtue of the keys is made contrition;" that
by
is to say, that a sorrow arising from a servile fear of punish-
236
ment, and such a fruitless repentance as the reprobate
may carry with them to hell, by virtue of the priesf s absolu-
tion is made so fruitful that it shall serve the turn for
' ~
23
obtaining forgiveness of sins godly ; as if it had been that
sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation not to be
repented of. By which spiritual cozenage many poor souls
are most miserably deluded, while they persuade themselves,
that upon the receipt of the priest's acquittance, upon this
carnal sorrow of theirs, all scores are cleared until that day ;
and then beginning upon a new reckoning, they sin and
confess, confess and afresh, and tread this round so long
sin
till
they put off thought of saving repentance; and so
all
* 38
the blind following the blind, both at last fall into
the pit.

quod vim habet in


solutionis impendere, Romani Correctores Gloss. Gratiani de
homine disposito peccata omnia dimit- Poenitent. Dist. i. in principio; et alii
tendi. Bellarmin. de Poenitent. lib. ii. passim.
cap. 14, sect, penult.
836 Matt, xxvii.
35.
34 *
Concil. Trident. Sess. xiv. cap. 4. 2 Cor. vii. 10.
33S 338
Attritio virtute clavium fit contritio. Matt. xv. 14.
134 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

and wicked, carnal, natural, and devilish men,"


saith St Augustine, " imagine those
things to be given unto
them by their seducers which are the of God, only gifts
whether sacraments or any other spiritual works concerning
their present salvation." But such as are thus seduced
may do well to listen a little to this
grave admonition of
" 240 Let no man
St Cyprian :
deceive, let no man beguile
himself: it is the Lord alone that can shew mercy. He
alone can grant pardon to the sins committed against him,
who did himself bear our sins, who suffered grief for us,
whom God did deliver for our sins. Man cannot be greater
than God, neither can the servant by his indulgence remit
or pardon that which by heinous trespass is committed against
the Lord; lest to him that is fallen this yet be added as a
further crime, if he be ignorant of that which is said, Cursed
is the man that putteth his trust in man"
Whereupon
St Augustine sticketh not to say, that good ministers do
" 241
consider, that they are but ministers, they would not be
held for judges, they abhor that any trust should be put
in them;" and that the power of remitting and retaining
sins iscommitted unto the Church, to be dispensed therein,
" 242
not according to the arbitrament of man, but according
to the arbitrament of God." Whereas our adversaries lay
the foundation of their Babel upon another ground, that
" 243
Christ hath appointed priests to be judges upon earth,
with such power that none, falling into sin after baptism,
" 2i4
may be reconciled without their sentence ;" and hath put
239
Mali et facinorosi, carnales, animales, homo qui spem habet in homine. Cyprian.
diabolici, a seductoribus suis sibi dari ar- de Lapsis, sect. 7 edit. Pamel. 14 Goulart.
241
bitrantur, quae non nisi munera Dei sunt, Ministri enim sunt, pro judicibus
sive sacramenta, sive spirituales aliquas haberi nolunt, spem in se poni exhorres-
operationes, circa praesentem salutem. cunt. August, in Evang. Johan. Tract, v.
August, de Baptism, contra Donatist. 242 Non secundum arbitrium hominum,
lib. iii. cap. ult. sed secundum arbitrium Dei. Id. de Bap-
240 Nemo se fallat, nemo se decipiat : tism, contra Donatist. lib. cap. 18.
iii.
243
solus Dominus misereri potest. Veniam Christus instituit sacerdotes judices

peccatis, quae in ipsum commissa sunt, super terram cum ea potestate, ut sine
solus potest ille largiri, qui peccata nostra ipsorum sententia nemo post baptismum
portavit, qui pro nobis doluit, quern Deus lapsus reconciliari possit. Bellarmin. de
tradidit pro peccatis nostris. Deo Homo Poenit. lib. iii. cap. 2.
244
esse non potest major; nee remittere aut Igitur in horum arbitrio munus solven-
donare indulgentia sua servus potest, quod di et ligandi, remittendi et retinendi peccata
in Dominum delicto graviore commissum hominum, a Chris to Domino per Spiritum
est : ne adhuc lapso et hoc accedat ad cri- Sanctum fuisse positum liquido constat.
men, si nesciat esse praedictum, Maledictus Baron. Annal. Tom. i. Ann. 34, sect. 197-
V. OF THE PRIEST S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. 135

the authority of binding and loosing, of forgiving and retain-


men in their arbitrament."
ing, the sins of
Whether the ministers of the Gospel may be accounted
judges in some sort, we will not much contend: for we dis-
" 215
like neither that
saying of St Jerome, that having the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, they judge after a sort
before the day of judgment;" nor that other of St Gregory,
that the Apostles and such as succeed them in the govern-
ment of the Church, " 246 obtain a principality of judgment
from above, that they may in God's stead retain the sins
of some and release the sins of others." All the question
is, in what sort they do judge, and whether the validity
of their judgment do depend upon the truth of the conver-
sion of the penitent ; wherein if our Romanists would stand
to the judgment of St Jerome or St Gregory, one of whom

they make a Cardinal and the other a Pope of their own


Church, the controversy betwixt us would quickly be at an
end. For St Jerome, expounding that speech of our Saviour
touching the keys of the kingdom of heaven^ in the 16th of
St Matthew, " * 47 the bishops and priests," saith he, " not
understanding this place, assume to themselves somewhat of
the Pharisees' arrogancy, as imagining that they may either
condemn the innocent or absolve the guilty ; whereas it is

not the sentence of the priests, but the life of the parties,
that is enquired of with God. In the book of Leviticus
we read of the lepers, where they are commanded to shew
themselves to the priests ; and if they shall have the leprosy,
that then they shall be made unclean by the priest. Not
that the priest should make them leprous and unclean, but

245 bentur ut ostendant se sacerdotibus, et si


Qui, claves regni ccelorum habentes,
quodammodo ante judicii diem judicant. lepram habuerint, tune a sacerdote im-
Hieronym. Epist. i. ad Heliodorum. mundi fiant : non quo sacerdotes leprosos
246
Principatum superni judicii sor- faciant et immundos; sed quo habeant
tiuntur, ut vice Dei quibusdam peccata notitiam leprosi et non leprosi, et possint
retineant, quibusdam relaxent. Gregor. discernere qui mundus quive immundus
Homil. xxvi. in Evangel. sit.Quomodo ergo ibi leprosum sacerdos
347 Istum locum
episcopi et presbyteri mundum vel immundum facit sic et hie ;

non intelligentes, aliquid sibi de Phari- alligat vel solvit episcopus et presbyter,
saeorum assumunt supercilio, ut vel dam- non eos qui insontes sunt vel noxii, sed
nent innocentes, vel solvere se noxios pro officio suo, cum peccatorum audierit

arbitrentur ; cum apud Deum non senten- varietates, scit qui ligandus sit quive sol.
tia sacerdotum, sed reorum vita quaeratur. vendus. Hieronym. Comment, in Matt,

Legimus in Levitico de leprosis, ubi ju- cap. xvi.


136 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

that they should take notice who was a and who was
leper
not, and should discern who was clean and who unclean.
Therefore, as there the priest doth make the leper clean or
unclean, so here the bishop or priest doth bind or loose;
not bind the innocent, or loose the guilty ; but when, accord-
ing to his office, he heareth the variety of sins, he knoweth
who is to be bound and who to be loosed." Thus far
St Jerome.
St Gregory likewise, in the very same place from whence
the Romanists fetch that former sentence, doth thus declare
in what manner that
principality of judgment which he
spake of should be exercised, being therein also followed
step by step by the Fathers of the Council of Aquisgran :

" 248
The causes ought to be weighed, and then the power
of binding and loosing exercised. It is to be seen what

the fault is, and what the repentance is that hath followed
after the fault; that such as Almighty God doth visit
with the grace of compunction, those the sentence of the

pastor may absolve. For the absolution of the prelate is


then true, when it followeth the arbitrament of the eternal

Judge." And this do they illustrate by that which we read


in the Gospel of the raising of Lazarus, John xi. 44, that
Christ did first of all give life to him that was dead by
himself, and then commanded others to loose him and let
him go. " 249 Behold," say they, " the disciples do loose
him being now alive, whom their Master had raised up being
dead. For if the disciples had loosed Lazarus being dead,
they should have discovered a stench more than a virtue.
By which consideration we may see, that by our pastoral
authority we ought to loose those whom we know that our
Author and Lord hath revived with his quickening grace."
The same application also do we find made, not only by
248
Causae ergo pensandae sunt, et tune solvunt, quern magister resuscitaverat

ligandi atque solvendi potestas exercenda. mortuum. Si enim discipuli Lazarum


Videndum est quae culpa, aut quae sit poeni- mortuum solverent, fcetorem magis os-
tentia secuta post culpam ut quos omni-
; tenderent quam virtutem. Ex qua con-
potens Deus per compunctionis gratiam sideratione intuendum est, quod illos nos
visitat, illos pastoris sententia absolvat. debemus per pastoralem auctoritatem sol-
Tune enim vera est absolutio prassidentis, vere, quos auctorem nostrum cognoscimus
cum seterni arbitrium sequitur Judicis. per suscitantem gratiam vivificare. Idem
Gregor. in Evangel. Horn. xxvi. Concil. ibidem, et Eligius Noviomens. Horn. xi.
Aquisgran. sub Ludovico Pio, cap. 37- Tom. vn. Biblioth. Patr. p. 248, edit.
249
Ecce ilium discipuli jam viventem Colon.
v.]
OF THE PRIEST'S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. 137

Peter Lombard and another of the schoolmen, but also by


250

Judocus Clichtoveus, not long before the time of the Council


of Trent. " * 51 saith " first of all
Lazarus," Clichtoveus,
came forth out of the sepulchre, and then was com-
alive
mandment given by our Lord, that he should be loosed by
the disciples and suffered to go his way ; because the Lord
Joth first
inwardly by himself quicken the sinner, and after-
wards absolveth him by the priests ministry. For no sinner
is to be absolved before it
appeareth that he be amended
by due repentance, and be quickened inwardly. But in-
wardly to quicken the sinner is the office of God alone,
who saith by the Prophet, / am he that blotteth out your
1 ''

iniquities.'
The truth, therefore, of the priest's absolution, dependeth
upon the truth and sincerity of God's quickening grace
in the heart of the penitent; which if it be wanting, all the
absolutions in the world will stand him in no stead. For
252
example, our Saviour saith, ff ye forgive men their tres-

passes^ your heavenly Father will also forgive you ; but


if ye forgive not trespasses, men their
your neither will
Father forgive your trespasses. And in this respect, as is
observed by Sedulius, " 253 in other men's persons we are
either absolved or bound:

" 2M
graviusque soluti
Nectimur, alterius si solvere vincla negamus."

Suppose now, that a man who cannot find in his heart to


forgive the wrong done unto him by another, is absolved
here by the priest from all his sins, according to the usual
form of absolution are we to think that what is thus loosed
;

upon earth, shall be loosed in heaven ? and that Christ,

250 P. Lombard, lib. iv. Sentent. Dist. nam poenitentiam correctus et intrinsecus
xvin. lit. f.; Alexand. de Hales. Summ. appareat vivificatus. Vivificare autem in-
part. iv. Quasst. xxi. Memb. 1, &c. terius peccatorem solius Dei munus est,
51
Sed ante prodiit redivivus Lazarus qui per prophetam dint, Ego sum qui
ex sepulchre, et deinde ut solveretur a deleo iniquitates vestras. Clichtov. in
discipulis, et sineretur abire, a Domino Evangel. Johan. lib. vii. cap. 23, inter
jussum est; quia peccatorem etiam con- Opera Cyrilli.
suetudine committendi reatus gravatum 352 Matt. vi. 14, 15, and xviii. 35.

prius Dominus intrinsecus per seipsum vi- 253 In aliorum personis aut absolvimur
vificat, postea vero eundem per sacerdotum aut ligamur. Sedul. lib. ii. Paschalis
ministerium absolvit. Nullus quippe pec- j Operis, cap. 11.
cator absolvendus est, antequam per dig-
'

" 4
Id. lib. ii. Paschal, ('arm.
138 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

to make
the priest's word true, will make his own false ?
And what we say of charity toward man, must much more
be understood of the love of God and the love of right-
eousness; the defect whereof is not to be supplied by the
absolution of any priest. It hath been always observed,
for a special difference betwixt good and bad men, that the
255
one hated sin for the love of virtue, the other only for
the fear of punishment. The like difference do our adver-
saries make betwixt contrition and attrition; ^that the
hatred of sin in the one proceedeth from the love of God
and of righteousness, in the other from the fear of punish-
257
ment and yet teach for all this, that
:
attrition, which
they confess would not otherwise suffice to justify a man,

being joined with the priest's absolution, is sufficient for


that purpose; he that was attrite being by virtue of this
absolution made contrite and justified, that is to say, he
that was led only by a servile fear, and consequently was
to be ranked among disordered and evil persons, being by
this means put in as good case for the matter of the forgive-
ness of his sins as he that loveth God sincerely. For they
themselves do grant that 258 such as have this servile fear,
from whence attrition issueth, are to be accounted evil and
disordered men by reason of their want of charity to which :

purpose also they allege that saying of Gregory, Recti


non recti adhuc timent te: " Such as be
diligunt te,

righteous love thee, such as be not righteous as yet fear


thee."
But they have taken an order notwithstanding, that
non recti shall stand recti in curia with them, by assuming
a strange authority unto themselves of justifying the wicked,
259
(a thing, we know, that hath the curse of God and 260 man
threatened unto it,) and making men friends with God
that have not the love of God dwelling in them. For
although we be taught by the word of God, that '^perfect

255 257
Oderunt peccare boni virtutis amore. j
Id. ibid.
Horat. lib. i. Epist. xvi. 259 recte probat eos, qui
256
Argumentum
Fatemur enim perfectum odium pec- timorem ser vilem habent, inordinatos ac
cati esse illud quod ex amore Dei justitiae- mai os &c Id. ibid.
esse? .

que procedit ; et ideo dolorem, sive odium 259 p r0 v. xvn. 15.


ex timore pcenae conceptum, non contntio-
nem, sed attritionem nominamus. Bel-
" m 1 John iv. 18.
larm. lib. ii. de Pcenit. cap. 18.
v-1 OF THE PRIEST'S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. 1:39

love casteth out fear ; that we


have not received the a(ia

spiritof bondage to fear again, but the Spirit of adoption,


whereby we cry, Abba, Father; that Mount Sinai (which
^maketh those that come unto it to fear and quake) ^engen-
dereth to bondage, and is to be cast out with her children
from inheriting the promise; and that 2G5 without love both
we ourselves are nothing, and all that we have doth profit
us nothing; yet these wonderful men would have us believe,
that by their word alone they are able to make
something
of this nothing ; that fear without love shall make men
capable of the benefit of their pardon, as well as love with-
out fear ; that whether men come by the way of Mount
Sinai or Mount Sion, whether they have legal or evange-
lical repentance, they have authority to absolve them from
all their sins. As if it did lie in their power to confound
God's their pleasure, and to
testaments at give unto a
servile not the benefit of manumission only, but the
fear,

privilege of adoption also, by making the children of the


bondwoman children of the promise, and giving them a
portion in that blessed inheritance together with the children
of her that is free.

^Repentance from dead works is one of the foundations


and principles of the doctrine of Christ. "
^Nothing
maketh repentance certain, but the hatred of sin and the
love of God." And without true repentance all the priests
under heaven are not able to give us a discharge from our
268
sins, and deliver us from the wrath to come. Except
ye be converted, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of
269
heaven: Except ye repent, ye shall all perish, is the
Lord's saying in the New Testament. And in the Old,
270
Repent, and turn from all your transgressions; so
iniquity shall not be your ruin.Cast away from- you all
your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed, and
make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye
die, O house of Israel ? Now put case, one cometh to his

262
Rom. viii. 15. 266
Heb. vi. 1.
263 267
Heb. xii. 18, 21. Pcenitentiam certain non tacit, nisi
264
Gal. iv. 24, 25, 31. odium peccati et amor Dei .
August. Serm.
265
1 Cor. xiii. 2, 3. Vide Auctorem vn. de Tempore.
de Vera 868
libri Falsa Poenitentia, cap. 17,
et Matt, xviii. 3. Luke xiii. 3, 5.
inter Opera Augustini, Tom. iv. Ezek. xviii. 30, 31.
140 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

ghostly Father with such sorrow of mind as the terrors of


a guilty conscience usually do produce, and with such a
resolution to cast away his sins, as a man hath in a storm
to cast away his goods; not because he doth not love them,
but because he feareth to lose his life if he part not with
them doth not he betray this man's soul, who putteth into
:

his head that such an extorted repentance as this, which


hath not one grain of love to season it withal, will qualify
him sufficiently for the receiving of an absolution, by I
know not what sacramental faculty that the priest is fur-
nished withal to that purpose ? For all do confess with
St Augustine, that " 271 this fear which loveth not justice
but dreadeth punishment, is servile because it is carnal,
and therefore doth not crucify the flesh. For the willing-
ness to sin liveth, which then appeareth in the work when

impunity is hoped for but when it is believed that punish-


;

ment will follow, it liveth closely, yet it liveth. For it


would wish rather that it were lawful to do that which the
law forbiddeth, and is sorry that it is not lawful because ;

it not spiritually delighted with the good thereof, but


is

carnally feareth the evil which it doth threaten."


What man then, do we think, will take the pains to get
him a new heart and a new spirit, and undertake the toil-
some work of crucifying the flesh with the lusts thereof;
if without all this ado the priest's absolution can make that

other imperfect or rather equivocal contrition, arising from


a carnal and servile fear, to be sufficient for the blotting
out of all his sins ? Or are we not rather to think, that this
sacramental penance of the Papists is a device invented by
the enemy to hoodwink poor souls, and to divert them from

seeking that true repentance which is


only able to stand
them in stead? and that such as take upon them to help
lame dogs over the stile, after this manner, by substituting
quid pro quo, attrition instead of contrition, servile fear
instead of filial love, carnal sorrow instead of godly repent-
ance, are physicians of no value, nay such as minister
271
Timor namque iste quo non amatur tura, latenter vivit, vivit tamen. Mallet
justitia,sed timetur poena, servilis est, quia enim licere, et dolet non licere quod lex
carnalis est, et ideo non crucifiget camem. vetat; quia non spiritualiter delectatur
Vivit enim peccandi voluntas, qua tune ejus bono, sed carnaliter malum metuit
apparet in opere, quando speratur impu- quodminatur. August, in Psalm, cxviii.
nitas. Cum vero poena creditur secu- Cone. 25.
OK THE PRIESTS POWER TO FORGIVK SINS. 141

poison unto men under colour of providing a sovereign medi-


cine for He, therefore, that will have care of his
them ?

soul's health, must consider that much resteth here in the

good choice of a skilful physician, but much more in the


pains that must be taken by the patient himself. For, that
every one who beareth the name of a priest is not fit to be
trusted with a matter of this moment, their own decrees
27 ~
may give them fair warning, where this admonition is twice
laid down out of the author that wrote of true and false
" 273
He who will confess his sins that he
repentance: may
find grace, let him seek for a priest that knoweth how to
bind and loose ; lest, while he is negligent concerning him-

self, he be neglected by him who mercifully admonisheth


and desireth him, that both fall not into the pit, which the
fool would not avoid."" And when the skilfullest priest that
is hath done his best, St Cyprian will tell them, that " 27 *to
him that repenteth, to him that worketh, to him that prayeth,
the Lord of his mercy can grant a pardon; he can make

good that which for such men either the martyrs shall request,
or the priest shall do."
If we enquire who they were that first assumed unto
themselves this exorbitant power of forgiving sins, we are
like to find them of the ancient heretics and
in the tents
schismatics, who
-'^promised unto others liberty, when they
themselves were the servants of corruption. 276
How many,
saith St Jerome, " which have neither bread nor apparel when

they themselves are hungry and naked, and neither have


spiritual meats, nor preserve the coat of Christ entire, yet

872 Decret. de Poenit. Distinct, i.


275 2 Pet. ii. 19.
cap. 88,
Quern paenitet et Distinct, vi. cap. 1, 278
;
Quanti panem non habentes et vesti-
Qui vult.
menta, cum ipsi esuriant et nudi sint, nee
273
Qui confiteri vult peccata ut inveniat habent spirituales cibos, neque Christi
gratiam, quaerat sacerdotem scientem li- tunicam integram reservarint ; aliis et ali-
gare et solvere ; ne, cum negligens circa monia et vestimenta promittunt, et pleni
se exstiterit, negligatur ab illo, qui eum vulneribus medicos esse se jactant nee :

misericorditer monet et petit, ne ambo in servant illud Mosaicum, Provide alium


foveam cadant, quam stultus evitare noluit. Ne
quern mittas; aliudque mandatum,
Lib. de Ver. et Fals. Pcenitent. cap. 10,
quaeras judex fieri, ne forte non possis
inter Opera Augustini, Tom. iv. auferre iniquitates. Solus Jesus omnes
274
Poenitenti, operanti, roganti potest languores sanat et infirmitates ; de quo
clementer ignoscere; potest in acceptum
scriptum est, Qui sanat contritos corde, et
referre, quidquid pro talibus et petierint
alligat contritiones eorum. Hieron. lib. ii.

martyres, et fecerint sacerdotes. Cyprian, Comment, in Esai. cap. iii.


de Lapsis, sect. 13 edit. Pamel. 29 Goulart.
142 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

promise unto others food and raiment, and being full of


wounds themselves, brag that they be physicians; and do
not observe that of Moses, Exod. iv. 13, Provide another
whom thou mayest send ; and that other commandment,
Ecclesiastic, vii. 6, Do not seek to be made a judge, lest
per adventure thou be not able to take away iniquity. It is
Jesus alone, who healeth all sicknesses and infirmities: of
whom it is written. Psalm cxLvii. 4, He healeth the con-
tritein heart, and bindeth up their sores" Thus far
St Jerome.
The Rhemists in their marginal note upon Luke vii. 49,
"
as the Pharisees did always carp Christ for
tell us, that
remission of sins in earth, so the heretics reprehend his
Church that remitteth sins by his authority." But St Au-
gustine, treating upon the selfsame place, might have taught
them, that hereby they bewrayed themselves to be the off-
spring of heretics rather than children of the Church. For
whereas our Saviour there had said unto the penitent
woman, Thy sins are forgiven ; and they that sate at meat
with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that
forgiveth sins also? St Augustine first compareth their know-

ledge and the knowledge of the woman thus together " 277 She :

knew that he could forgive sins; but they knew that a man
could not forgive sins. And we are to believe that all, that is,
both they which sate at table, and the woman which came to
our Lord's feet, they all knew that a man could not forgive
sins. Seeing all therefore knew this, she who believed that he
could forgive sins, understood him to be more than a man."
And a little after: " 278 That do you know well, that do
hold saith that learned Father.
well;"
" Hold that
you
a man cannot forgive sins. She who believed that her sins
were forgiven her by Christ, believed that Christ was not
only man, but God also." Then doth he proceed to com-
pare the knowledge of the Jews then, with the opinion of

277 Noverat ergo ilium posse dimittere peccata dimittere, plus quam hominem
peccata ; illi autem noverant hominem non esse intellexit. August. Homil. xxm.
posse peccata dimittere. Et credendum Ex. 50, cap. 7.
est, quod omnes, id est, et illi discum- 278 Tamen illud bene nostis, bene tene-
bentes et mulier accedens ad pedes
ilia tis. Tenete, quia homo non potest peccata
Domini, omnes hi noverant hominem non dimittere. Ilia quae sibi a Christo peccata

posse peccata dimittere. Cum ergo omnes dimitti credidit, Christum non hominem
hoc nossent, ilia quse credidit eum posse tantum, sed et Deum credidit. Id. ibid.
V. OF THE PRIEST S POWER TO FORGIVE SINS. 143

the heretics in his days. " 27<J " the Pha-


Herein," saith he,
risee was better than these men ; for when he did think
that Christ was a man, he did not believe that sins could
be forgiven by a man. It appeared, therefore, that the
Jews had better understanding than the heretics. The Jews
said, Who that forgiveth sins also ?
is this Dare a man chal-
lenge this to himself? What saith the heretic on the other
side? I do forgive, I do cleanse, I do sanctify. Let Christ
answer him, not I O man, when I was thought by the Jews
:

to be a man, I ascribed the forgiveness of sins to faith. Not


I, but Christ doth answer thee: O heretic, thou, when
thou art but a man, sayest, Come, woman, I do make thee
safe. I, when I was thought to be but a man, said, Go,

woman, thy faith hath made thee safe."


The heretics atwhom St Augustine here aimeth, were
the Donatists; whom Optatus also before him did
thus
take for the same " 280 Understand
roundly up presumption.
at length, that you are servants and not lords. And if the
Church be a vineyard, and men be appointed to be dressers
of it, why do you rush into the dominion of the house-
holder ? Why 281do you challenge unto yourselves that which
is God's?"
" Give leave unto God to perform the things
that belong unto himself. For that gift cannot be given
by man which is divine. If you think so, you labour to
frustrate words of the Prophets and the promises of
the
God, by which it is proved that God washeth" away sin,
" and not man." It is noted likewise by Theodoret of
the Audian heretics, that " 282 they bragged they did for-

279 Sed 280


in eo melior Pharisseus; quia Intelligite vos vel sero operarios esse,
cum putaverat hominem Christum, non non dominos. Et si ecclesia vinea est, sunt
credebat ab homine posse dimitti peccata. homines et ordinati cultores. Quid in
Melior ergo Judaeis quam haereticis appa- dominium patrisfamilias irruistis ? Quid
ruit intellectus. Judaei dixerunt, Quis est vobis, quod Dei est, vindicatis? Optat.
hie qui etiam peccata dimittit ? Audet lib. v. contra Donatist.
sibi homo usurpare ? Quid contra haere-
281
ConcediteDeo praestare quae sua
ticus ? Ego mundo, ego sanctifico. Re- sunt. Non enim potest munus ab ho-
spondeat illi, non ego, sed Christus : O mine dari, quod divinum est. Si sic

homo, quando ego a Judaeis putatus sum putatis, prophetarum voces et Dei pro-
homo, dimissionem peccatorum fidei dedi. missa inanire contenditis, quibus pro-
Non ego, respondet tibi Christus O haere-
:
batur, quia Deus lavat, non homo. Id.
tice, tu cum sis homo, dicis, Veni mulier, ibid.
83
ego te salvum facio. Ego cum putarer OUTOI de atyeariv dfJ-apTTifidTcov TTOI-
homo, dixi, Vade mulier, fides tua te sal- elarQat veavievovTai. Theodor. Haeret.
vum fecit. Id. ibid. cap. 8. Fabul. lib. iv.
144 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

give sins." The manner of confession which he saith was


used among them, was not much unlike that which Alvarus
Pelagius acknowledged to have been the usual practice of
them that made greatest profession of religion and learning
in his time. u
For scarce at all,"" saith he, " or very
283

seldom, doth any of them confess otherwise than in general


terms; scarce do they ever specify any grievous sin. What
they say one day, that they say another, as if
every day
they did offend alike." The manner of absolution was the
same with that which Theodoricus de Niem noteth to have
been practised by the pardoners sent abroad by Pope Boni-
face the Ninth, who " *released all sins to
2s
them that con-
fessed without any penance or repentance; affirming that

they had for their warrant in so doing all that power which
Christ gave unto Peter, of binding and loosing upon earth."
Just as Theodoret reporteth the Audians were wont to do,
who presently
" ^
after confession granted remission; not

prescribing a time for repentance, as the laws of the Church


did require, but giving pardon by authority.
The laws of the Church prescribed a certain time unto
286
penitents, wherein they should give proof of the sound-
ness of their repentance ; and gave order that afterwards
287
they should be forgiven and comforted, lest they should
be swallowed up with overmuch heaviness. So that first
288
their penance was enjoined unto them, and thereby they
were held to be bound; after performance whereof they
received their absolution, by which they were loosed again.
But the Audian heretics, without any such trial taken of
their repentance, did of their own heads give them absolution

presently upon their confession ; as the Popish priests use

283 285 Elxa TOIS


Vix enim aut rarissime aliquis talium (o/JioXoyriKocriv povvrai
confitetur nisi per verba generalia: vix Tr\v ov xpovov
opi^ voi eh
a<p(riv,
/jLCTavoiav, KaQd Ke\evov<rtv
ol TT/S e/c/cXtj-
unquam aliquod grave specificant. Quod
dicunt una die, dicunt et altera ; ac si in crtas defffJLOi, dXX.' egova-ia Troiov/jLevot TTJJ/

omni die aequaliter offendant. Alvar. de avyyutpricriv. Theodor. Hares, lib. iv.
286
Planet. Eccles. lib. Art. 78, A.
ii. August. Enchirid. ad Laur. cap. 65.
28 ?
284 Omnia 2 Cor.
peccata etiam sine pceniten- 7.
ii.

288
tia ipsis confitentibus relaxarunt; super Vide Nomocanonem Nefleutae in
Theod. Balsamonis Collect. Canon, edit.
quibuslibet irregularitatibus dispensarunt
interventu pecuniae; dicentes se omnem Paris, ann. 1620, p. 1101, lin. ult. ; et

Niconis Epist. ad Enclistium, ib. p. 1096,


potestatem habere super hoc, quam Chris-
tus Petro ligandi et solvendi contulisset in 1097 ; et Anastas. Sinait. Quaest. vi. p. 64.
terris. Niem. de Schismate, lib. i. cap . 68. edit. Gra2co-Lat. Gretseri.
v-1
OF TIIK P1UEST\S J'OWKK I V !: IIX6.

to do now-a-days. Only the Audians had one ridiculous


ceremony more than the Papists; that, having placed the
canonical books of Scripture upon one side, and certain

apocryphal writings on the other, they caused their fol-


lowers to pass betwixt them, and in their
passing to make
confession of their sins
as the Papists another idle prac-
:

tice more than they


; that after they have given absolution,

they enjoin penance to the party absolved, that is to say,


as they of old would have first loose
interpreted it,
they
him, and presently after bind him ; which howsoever they
hold to be done in respect of the temporal punishment remain-
ing due after the remission of the fault, yet it appeareth
plainly, that the penitential works required in the ancient
Church had reference to the fault itself; and that no abso-
lution was
be expected from the minister for the one,
to
before reckonings were ended for the other.
all
Only where
the danger of death was imminent, the case admitted some

exception ; reconciliation being not denied, indeed, unto them


that desired it at such a time;
yet so granted, that it was
it would stand the
left
very doubtful whether parties in any
" 2sy
lf any one being in the last extre-
great stead or no.
" is
mity of his sickness," saith St Augustine, willing to
receive penance, and doth receive it, and is
presently recon-
ciledand departeth hence; I confess unto you, we do not
deny him that which he asketh, but we do not presume
that he goeth well from hence. I do not
presume, I de-
ceive you not, I do not presume." " 290 He who
putteth off
his penance to the last, and is reconciled; whether he
goeth
secure from hence, I am not secure. Penance I can give
him; security I cannot give him." " 291 Do I say, he shall
be damned? I say not so. But do I say also, he shall be
freed ? No. What dost thou then say unto me ? I know not :

I presume not, I promise not, I know not. Wilt thou free


289
Si quis positus in ultima necessitate non sum securus, &c. Pcenitentiam dare
aDgritudinis sua?, voluerit accipere pceni- possum ; securitatem dare non possum.
tentiam, et accipit, et mox reconciliatur, Ibid.
hinc vadit ; fateor vobis, non illi nega- 91
et
Numquid dico, damnabitur ? Non
mus quod petit, sed non praesumimus, dico. Sed dico etiam, liberabitur ? Non.
quia bene hinc exit. Non praesumo, non Et quid dicis mihi ? Nescio non prae- :

vos fallo, non praesumo. August. Horn. sumo, non promitto, nescio. Vis te de
XM. Ex.50; Ambros. Exhort, ad Pu-nit. dubio liberare? vis quod incertum cst
- !l
A gens
pu'nitentiam ad ultimum, et evadere ? Age pa-nitentiam dum sanus
reconciliatus, si securus hinc exit, ego es. Ibid.
14G ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

thyself of the doubt ? wilt thou escape that which is uncer-


tain ? Do thy penance while thou art in health." " 292
The
penance which is asked for by the infirm man, is infirm.
The penance which is asked for only by him that is a dying,
I fear lest it also die."
But with the matter of penance we have not here to
deal those formal absolutions and pardons of course, imme-
:

diately granted upon


the hearing of men's confessions, is
that which we charge the Romish priests to have learned
from the Audian heretics. " 2 93 Some
require penance to
.

this end, that they might presently have the Communion


restored unto them ; these men desire not so much to loose
themselves as to bind the priest," saith St Ambrose. If
thisbe true, that the priest doth bind himself by his hasty
and unadvised loosing of others the case is like to go hard
;

with our Popish priests, who ordinarily, in bestowing their


absolutions, use to make more haste than good speed.
Wherein with how little judgment they proceed, who thus
take upon them the place of judges in men's consciences,

may sufficiently appear by this: that whereas the main


ground whereupon they would build the necessity of auricu-
lar confession, and the particular enumeration of all known

sins, is pretended to be this, that the ghostly Father, having


taken notice of the cause, may judge righteous judgment,
and discern who should be bound, and who should be
loosed; the matter yet is so carried in this court of theirs,
that every man commonly goeth away with his absolution,
and all sorts of people usually receive one and the selfsame
294
judgment. //" thou separate the precious from the vile,
thou shalt be as my mouth, saith the Lord. Whose mouth,
then, may we hold them to be, who seldom put any differ-
ence between these, and make it their ordinary practice to
pronounce the same sentence of absolution as well upon the
one as upon the other?
If we would know how late it was before this trade
of pardoning men's sins after this manner was established

292
Pcenitentia quse ab infirmo peti- ut statim sibi reddi communionem velint :

tur, infirma est. Pcenitentia quae a hi non tarn se solvere cupiunt, quam sacer-
moriente tantum petitur, timeo ne ipsa dotem ligare. Suam enim conscientiam
moriatur. August. Serm. Lvn.de Tern- non exuunt, sacerdotis induunt, Ambros.
pore. de Pcenit. lib. ii. cap. 9.
293 294
Nonnulli ideo poscunt poenitentiam, Jer. xv. 19.
OF THE PRIESTS POWKK 1 o F<) IU. I V K >l\

in the Church of Rome, we cannot discover this better


than by tracing out the doctrine publicly taught in that
Church touching this matter, from the time of Satan's
loosing until his binding again, by the restoring of the
purity of the Gospel in our days. And here Radulphus
Ardens doth in the first place offer himself, who toward
the beginning of that time preached this for sound :
divinity
" 2<J5
The power of releasing sins to God alone:
belongeth
but the ministry, which improperly also is called a power,
he hath granted unto his substitutes who after their man- ;

ner do bind and absolve, that is to say, do declare that men


are bound or absolved. For God doth first inwardly absolve
the sinner by compunction ; and then the priest outwardly,
by giving the sentence, doth declare that he is absolved.
Which is well signified by that of Lazarus; who first in
the grave was raised up by the Lord, and afterward by the

ministry of the disciples was loosed from the bands where-


with he was tied." Then follow both the Anselms, ours
of Canterbury, and the other of Laon in France; who, in
their expositions upon the ninth of St Matthew,
clearly
teach, that none but God alone can forgive sins. Ivo,
of Chartres, " 296
Bishop writeth, that by inward contrition
the inward judge is satisfied, and therefore without delay
forgiveness of sin is
granted by him unto whom the inward
conversion is manifest ; but the Church, because it knoweth
not the hidden things of the heart, doth not loose him that
isbound, although he be raised up, until he be brought out
of the tomb, that to say,
purged by public satisfaction."
is

And if
presently, upon the inward conversion, God be pleased
priest which fol-
to forgive the sin, the absolution of the

loweth, cannot in any sort properly be accounted a remission

295 a
Potestas peccata relaxandi solius nisterio discipulorum, vitiis (fort, vittis)

Dei est ministerium vero, quod impro-


:
quibus ligatus fuerat, absolvitur. Rad.
prie etiam potestas vocatur, vicariis suis Ardens, Homil. Dominic, i. post Pascha.
concessit ; qui modo suo ligant vel absol- 896 p er internum gemitum satisfit in-

vunt, id est, ligatos vel absolutes esse terno judici, et idcirco indilato datur ab eo
ostendunt. Prius enim Deus interius pec- peccati remissio, cui manifesta est interna
catorem per compunctionem absolvit ; conversio. Ecclesia vero, quia occulta
sacerdos vero exterius, sententiam profe- cordis ignorat, non solvit ligatum, licet
rendo, eum esse absolutum ostendit. Quod suscitatum, nisi de monumento elatum, id
bene significatur per Lazarum, qui prius est,publica satisfactione purgatum. Ivo
in tumulo a Domino suscitatur, et
post, mi- Carnotens. Epist. ccxxvui.
K2
148 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

of that sin, but a further manifestation only of the remission


formerly granted by God himself.
The Master of the sentences after him, having pro-
pounded the divers opinions of the doctors touching this
" 297 In this so
point, demandeth at last, great variety what
is to be held?" and returneth for answer:
"Surely this
we may say and think that God alone doth forgive and
:

retain sins, and yet hath given power of binding and loosing
unto the Church; but he bindeth and looseth one way,
and the Church another. For he only by himself forgiveth
sin, who both cleanseth the soul from inward blot, and
looseth it from the debt of everlasting death. But this hath
he not granted unto priests; to whom, notwithstanding, he
hath given the power of binding and loosing, that is to say,
of declaring men to be bound or loosed. Whereupon the
Lord did first
by himself restore health to the leper, and
then sent him unto the priests, by whose judgment he might
be declared to be cleansed so also he offered Lazarus to
:

11
his disciples to be loosed, having first quickened him. In
like manner, Hugo Cardinalis sheweth, that it is 298 only
that " the priest cannot
299
God forgiveth sins: and
that
bind or loose the sinner with or from the bond of the fault,
and the punishment due thereunto but only declare him ;

to be bound or loosed as the Levitical priest did not make


:

or cleanse the leper, but only declared him to be infected


11
or clean. And
a great number of the schoolmen afterward
shewed themselves to be of the same judgment: that to

pardon the fault and the eternal punishment due unto the
same, was the proper work of God; that the priests abso-
lution hath no real operation that way, but presupposeth

297 In hac tanta varietate quid tenendum ? ;


deinde ad sacerdotes misit, quorum judicib
H oc sane dicereac sen tire possumus; quod j
ostenderetur mundatus. Ita etiam Laza-
solus Deus dimittit peccata et retinet, et rum jam vivificatum obtulit discipulis
tamen ecclesiae contulit potestatem ligandi solvendum. Petr. Lombard, lib. iv. Sen-
et solvendi sed aliter ipse solvit vel ligat,
: tent. Distinct, xvin. e. f.
298
aliter ecclesia. Ipse enim per se tan turn Solius Dei est dimittere peccata.
dimittit peccatum, qui et animam mundat Hugo Card, in Luc. v.
299
ab interiori macula, et a debito aeternae Vinculo culpae et pcenae debitae non
mortis solvit. Non autem hoc sacerdotibus potest eum sacerdos ligare vel solvere ; sed
concessit; quibus tamen tribuit potesta- tantum ligatum vel absolutum ostendere.
tem solvendi et ligandi, id est, ostendendi Sicut sacerdos Leviticus non faciebat vel
homines ligatos vel solutos. Unde Domi- mundabat leprosum sed tantum infectum
;

nus leprosum sanitati prius per se restituit, vel mundum ostendebat. Id. in Matt. xvi.
V. OF THE PRIEST S I'O \VEll TO FORGIVE SINS. 149

the party to be first


justified and
by absolved God. Of
this mind were ^ Gulielmus
Alexander Altissiodorensis,
301

of Hales, 302 Bonaventure, ^Ockam, ^Thomas de Argen-


tina,
305
Michael de Bononia, ^Gabriel Biel, 307 Henricus de
Huecta, ^Johannes Major, and others.
To lay down all their words at large would be too
tedious. In general, Hadrian the Sixth, one of their own
309
Popes, acknowledgeth, that the most approved divines
were of this mind, " that the keys of the priesthood do not
extend themselves to the remission of the fault :" and 3IO Major
that this is
" the common tenet of the doctors."
affirmeth,
So likewise is it avouched by Gabriel that " 311
the
Biel,
old doctors commonly" follow the opinion of the Master
of the sentences ; that priests do forgive or retain sins, while

they judge and declare that they are forgiven by God or re-
tained. But all this notwithstanding, Suarez is bold to tell
" that 312
this opinion of the Master is and now at
us, false,
this time erroneous." was not held so the other day, whenIt
Ferus preached at Mentz, that " man 313 did not properly remit
sin, but did declare and certify that it was remitted by God.
So that the absolution received from man is nothing else
than if he should say, Behold, my son, I certify thee that
thy sins are forgiven thee; I pronounce unto thee that thou
hast God favourable unto thee; and whatsoever Christ in

baptism and in his Gospel hath promised unto us, he doth

300 310
Altissiodorens. Summ. lib. iv. cap. Major, in iv. Dist. xiv. Qu.ust. n.
de generali usu clavium. Concl. 3.
301
Alexand. Halens. Summ. part. iv. 311
Et ill am opinionem communiter se-
Quaest. xxi. Membr. 1.
quuntur doctores antiqui. Biel. in iv.
309
Bonavent. in iv. Dist. xvui. Art. 2, Dist. xiv. Quaest. n. d.
Quaest. i. et n. 312
Verumtamen haec sententia Magistri
303
Gul. Ockam, in iv. Sentent. Quaest. falsa est, et jam hoc tempore erronea.
ix. lit. Q. Fr. Suarez. in Thorn. Tom iv. Disp. xix.
304
Argentin. in iv. Sent. Dist. xvui. sect. 2, num. 4.
Art. 3. 313
Non quod homo proprie remittat
305 Mich. Angrian. in Psal. xxix. etxxxi. peccatum ; sed quod ostendat ac certificet
306 Biel. in iv. Sent. Dist. xiv. Quaest. a Deo remissum. Neque enim aliud est
II. d. n. et Dist. xvui. Quaest. i. k. absolutio, quam ab homine aecipis, quam
307 Henr. de Oyta Jota), in Propo-
(al. si dicat : En fill, certifico te tibi remissa
sitionib. apud illyricum, in Catal. Test. esse peccata, annuncio tibi te habere pro-
Veritat. pitium Deum
; et quaecunque Christus in
308
Major, in iv. Sentent. Dist. xvui. baptismo et evangelic nobis promisit, tibi
Quaest. i. nunc per me annunciat et promittit. Jo.
u9
Hadrian, in Quodlibetic. Quaest. v. Ferus, lib. ii. Comment, in Matt. ix.
cap.
Art. 3. b. edit. Mogunt. ann. 1559.
150 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAF.

now and promise unto thee by me.


declare Of this shalt
thou have me to be a witness: go in peace and in quiet
of conscience." But, jam hoc tempore, " the case is altered :"
314
these things must be purged out of Ferus as erroneous ;
the opinion of the old doctors must give place to the sen-
tence of the new Fathers of Trent. And so we are come at
length to the end of this long question, in the handling
whereof I have spent the more time, by reason our priests
do make this faculty of pardoning men's sins to be one of
the most principal parts of their occupation, and the parti-
cular discovery thereof is not ordinarily by the writers of
our side so much insisted upon.

OF PURGATORY.

Foil extinguishing the imaginary flames of Popish Pur-

gatory, we need not go far to fetch water; seeing the whole


current of God's word runneth mainly upon this, that l the
blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin; that all
z
God's children *die in Christy and that such as die in him,
4
do rest from their labours : that, as they be absent from
the Lord while they are in the body, so when they be absent

from the body* they are present with the Lord; and in a
b
word, that they come not into judgment, but pass from
death unto life.
And if we need the assistance of the
ancient Fathers in this business, behold they be here ready
with full buckets in their hands.
6
Tertullian, to begin withal, counteth it injurious unto
Christ, to hold that such as be called from hence by him
are in a state that should be pitied. Whereas they have
obtained their desire of being with Christ, according to
that of the Apostle Philip, i. 23, / desire to depart, and be

314
Ferus in Matt. edit. Antuerp. arm. que ab illo, quasi miserandos non aequa-
1559, 1570, &c. nimiter accipimus. Cupio, inquit Aposto-
1
1 John i. 7. lus, recipi jam et esse cum Christo. Quan-
2 melius ostendit votum Christianorum
1 Cor. xv. 18; 1 Thess. iv. 16. to !

3 4
Rev. xiv. 13. 2 Cor. v. 6, 8. Ergo votum si alios consequutos impa-
fi
John v. 24. tienter dolemus, ipsi consequi nolumus.
6
Christum Icedimus, cum evocatos quos- Tertul. lib. de Patient, cap. 9.
VI.
J
OF I'UKtiATOltV. 151

with Christ. What pity was it, that the poor souls in pur-
gatory should find no spokesman in those days to inform
men better of their rueful condition; nor no secretary to
draw up such another supplication for them as this, which
of late years Sir Thomas More presented in their name :

" 7
To all most piteous wise-
Christian In
good people.
continually calleth and crieth upon your devout charity and
most tender pity, for help, comfort and relief, your late
acquaintance, kindred, spouses, companions, playfellows, and
friends, and now your humble and unacquainted and half-
forgotten suppliants, poor prisoners of God, the silly souls
in purgatory, here abiding, and enduring the grievous pains
and hot cleansing fire," &c. If St Cyprian had understood
but half thus much, doubtless he would have strucken out
the best part of that famous Treatise which* he wrote of

Mortality, to comfort men against death in the time of a


great plague, especially such passages as these are, which
by no means can be reconciled with purgatory :

" 8
It is for him to fear death, that is not willing to

go unto Christ it is for him to be unwilling to go unto


:

Christ, who doth not believe that he beginneth to reign


with Christ. For it is written, that the just doth live by
faith. If thou be just, and livest by faith, if thou dost
truly believe God, why, being in with Christ, and to be
being secure of the Lord's promise, dost not thou embrace
the message whereby thou art called unto Christ, and rejoicest
that thou shalt be rid of the devil ? Simeon said, Lord, now
lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy
"9
word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation" proving
thereby and witnessing, that the servants of God then have
peace, then enjoy free and quiet rest, when being drawn

7The Supplication of Souls, made by in Deum credis, cur non, cum Christo fu-
SirThomas More ; which seemeth to be turus, et de Domini pollicitatione securus,
made in imitation of Joh. Gerson's Que- quod ad Christum voceris, amplecteris, et
rela Defunctorum in Igne Purgatorio de- quod Diabolo careas, gratularis ? Cypr.
tentorum ad superstites in terra Amicos, de Mortalit. sect. 2, edit. Goulart.
j

9
part. iv. Oper. edit. Paris, ann. 1606, I
Probans
scilicet atque contestans,

Col. 959. tune esse servis Dei pacem, tune liberam,


8 tune tranquillam quietem, quando de
Ejusest mortem timere, qui ad Chris- i

turn nolit ire ejus est ad Christum nolle


: istis mundi turbinibus extracti, sedis et
j

ire, qui se non credat cum Christo incipere i


securitatis aeternae portum petimus, quan-
enim, Justum fide do expuncta hac morte ad immortalitatem
'

regnare. Scriptum est

vivere. iSi jftstus es, et fide vivis, si vere venimus. Ibid.


152 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAF.

from these storms of the world, we arrive at the haven of


our everlasting habitation and security, when this death being
we enter into " 10 The are
ended, immortality." righteous
called to a refreshing, the unrighteous are haled to torment :

safety is quickly granted to the faithful, and punishment


" n We are not to
to the unfaithful." put on black mourn-
ing garments here, when our friends there have put on white."
" l2 This is not a but a
going out, passage; and, this temporal
Let " 13
journey being finished, a going over to eternity."
us therefore embrace the day that bringeth every one to his
own house ; which having taken us away from hence, and
loosed us from the snares of this world, returneth us to
paradise, and to the kingdom of heaven."
The same holy Father, in his Apology, which he wrote
for Christians unto Demetrian, the Proconsul of Afric,
affirmeth in like manner, that " 14 the end of this temporal
life
being accomplished, we are divided into the habitations
of everlasting, either death or immortality." " 15 When we
are once departed from hence, there is now no further place
for repentance, neither any effect of satisfaction. Here life
is either lost or obtained." But if " 16 thou," saith he, " even
at the very end and setting of thy temporal life, dost pray
for thy sins, and call upon the only true God with con-
fession and
faith, pardon given thee confessing, and
is to

saving forgiveness is
granted by the divine piety to thee
believing ; and at thy very death thou hast a passage unto
immortality. This grace doth Christ impart, this gift of

Ad refrigerium justi vocantur, ad [


15
Quandoistincexcessumfnerit,nullus
supplicium rapiuntur injusti : datur velo- jam pcenitentiae locus est, nullus satisfac-
cius tutela fidentibus, perfidis pcena. Ib. tionis effectus ; hie vita aut amittitur, aut

sect. 11. tenetur. Id. ibid. sect. 22.


11
Nee
accipiendas esse hie atras vestes.
16
Tu sub ipso licet exitu et vitss tempo-
quando illi ibi indumenta alba jam sump- ;
ralis occasu,pro delictis roges ; et Deum,
serint. Ibid. sect. 14. :

qui unus et verus est, confessione et fide


Non agnitionis ejus implores ; venia confitenti
12
est exitus iste, sed transitus, et, j

temporal! itinere decurso, ad aaterna


trans- datur, et credenti indulgentia salutaris de
Ibid. sect. 15. divina pietate conceditur ; et ad immorta-
gressus.
13
Amplectamur diem, qui assignat sin- litatem sub ipsa morte transitur. Hanc
gulos domicilio suo ; qui nos istinc ereptos, gratiam Christus impertit, hoc munus
et laqueis secularibus exsolutos, paradiso misericordiae suae tribuit, subigendo mor
|

restituit et regno coelesti. Ibid. sect. 18. tem tropaeo crucis, redimendo credentem
pretio sanguinis sui, reconciliando homi-
14
Donee aevitemporalis fine completo, ad
aeternse vel mortis vel immortalitatis hospi- nem Deo Patri, vivificando mortalem
'

tiadividamur. Id. ad Demetrian. sect. Ifi. regeneration e coelesti. Ibid'.


V,.]
OF PUBGATORY. 153

his mercy doth he bestow, by subduing death with the


triumph of his cross, by redeeming the believer with the
price of his blood, by reconciling man unto God the Father,
by quickening him that is mortal with heavenly regenera-
tion."
Where Solomon saith, Ecclesiast. xii. 5, that man goeth
to his everlasting house, and
mourners go about in the the
street, St Gregory of Neocaesarea maketh this paraphrase
" 17 The
upon those words: good man shall go rejoicing
unto his everlasting house, but the wicked shall fill all with
lamentations." Therefore did the Fathers teach, that men
should " 18
rejoice" at their death; and the ancient Christians
framed their practice accordingly, " 19 not celebrating the

day of which they accounted to be " the


their nativity,"
"
entry of sorrows and temptations," but celebrating the
day of death, as being the putting away of all sorrows, and
the escaping of all temptations." And so being filled with
" 20
a divine rejoicing, they came to the extremity of death
2I
as unto the end of their holy combats ;" where they did
" more
clearly behold the way that led unto their immor-
tality,
as being now made nearer; and did therefore praise
the gifts of God, and were replenished with divine joy, as
now fearing any change to worse, but knowing well
not
that the good things which they possessed shall be firmly
and everlastingly enjoyed by them."
The author of the Questions and Answers attributed
to Justin Martyr, writeth thus of this matter: " a2 After

17
Kal o fiev a'ya6os dvr\p els aiutviov dyiovwv. Et paulo post 'Ev TOI/TOIS fiev :

OLKOV TOV eavTov yalpwv Tropeuaeraf ol ouv TWV lepijav eo"ri /cot^ut/tris tv eixfipo-
j

6e ye (pavXoi Trdvra rd avTwv e/jLTrXt]- crvvrt Kal d<ra\evToi<i fXiriaiv eis TO TU>V
KOTTTOfievoi. Greg. Neocaesar.
troixri Me- Qei<av dytovtov dtyiKvovfJLevt] Trepas. Dion.
taphras. in Ecclesiast. Ecclesiast. Hierarch. cap. 9.
18 21
Ael <5e CTTI Qavd-rta ^aipeiv. Anton. !AAX' oXous auTousct7roXji^eo-6ai TI\V
Meliss. part. Serm. LVIII. &c. iri TO
i. eiSfj\rj^iv eWoTCs, OTO.V
19
Nos non nativitatis diem celebra- eXOaxrt TOV TrjSe fiiov, TI}U eis

mus, cum sit dolorum atque tentationum


introitus; sed mortis diem celebramus, yeyevr]iievt]v, e/uL^avetrTepov optaari, Kal

utpote omnium dolorum depositionem Tas 5a)/oeas T^S Qeap^ia^ V/ULVOVGI, Kal

atque omnium tentationum effugationem.


'
Auctor lib. iii. in Job. inter Opera Ori- Xe l
P <a Tpoirr\v ovKeTi SeSotKOTes, aXX' eu
genis. Vide S. Basil. Horn, in Psal. cxv. eioores, OTI TO. KTt]OevTa KaXd /3e/3a/cos
p. 318, edit. Graeco-Lat. Kal aicoviias e^ovcriv. Ibid.
*
'Ei; eixftpotruvri 6ei Try>os TO TOV 82 M era Se TTJI; e/c TOV (rwfiaTO^
irepas laviv <k eirl TeXos iepwv euOus yiveTai TWV SiKaiwv TC Kal
154 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [cHAP.

the departure of the soul out of the body, there is presently


made a distinction betwixt the just and the unjust. For
they are brought by the angels to places fit for them ; the
souls righteous to paradise, where they have the
of the
commerce and sight of angels and archangels, &c. ; the souls
of the unjust to the places in hell." That " 23 is not death,"
saith Athanasius, that befalleth
" the righteous, but a trans-
lation ; for they are translated out of this world into

everlasting rest: and


out of a prison,as a man would go
so do the saints go out of this troublesome life unto those

good things that are prepared for them."" St Hilary, out


of that which is related in the Gospel of the rich man and
24
Lazarus, observeth, that as soon as this life is ended, every
one without delay is sent over either to Abraham's bosom,
or to the place of torment, and in that state reserved until
the day of judgment. St Ambrose, in his book of the
of Death, teacheth us that death " 25 is a certain haven
Good
to them who, being tossed in the great sea of this life,
desire a road of safe quietness ;" that
" it maketh not a
man's state worse, but such as it findeth in every one, such
it reserveth unto the future judgment, and refresheth with
" 26 a
rest;" that thereby passage is made from corruption
to incorruption, from mortality to immortality, from trouble
to tranquillity." Therefore he saith, that where " 27 fools
do fear death as the chief of evils, wise men do desire it as
a rest after labours, and an end of their evils :" and upon

TJ (SiaerroXij'ayoJ'Tai yap viro TWV ayye'Xcoi/ tis habet unumquemque suis legibus, dum
eis a'tous avToov TOTTOWS' a! /JLCV
TWV di- ad judicium unumquemque aut Abraham
Kaitov \]svai eis TOV Trapadetaov, tt>6a reservat aut poena. Hilar. in Psalm, ii.
25
TC /cat 0ea ayyeXwi/ Te /cat dp\- Et quia portus quidam est eorum qui,
&C. at 5e TWV d&'iKwv tyvyai els
, magno vitae istius jactati salo, fidae quietis

a'5rj TOTTOUS.
TOUS ev TO> Justin. Respons. stationem requirunt; et quia deteriorem
ad Orthodox. Quaest. LXXV. statum non efficit, sed qualem in singulis
23
OVK ecrTi yap irapd -rots 5i/caiots invenerit, talem judicio futuro reservat, et
0aW-ro5, aXXa /u.eTa0e<rts. /zeTaTt0ei/Tat quiete ipsa fovet, &c. Ambros.de Bono
yap e/c TOV KOfffJiou TOVTOV eis Tt]i> aliaviov Mortis, cap. 4.
26
dvairavaLV. /cat utcrirep Tt9 aVo Transitur autem a corruptione ad

^e'X0ot, ovTW<3 /cat ol ayiot e^e incorruptionem, a mortalitate ad immor-


ttTTO TOU (JiOyQllpOV (3iOV TOVTOV 15 TO. talitatem, a perturbatione ad tranquillita-
avrols. Athanas. tem. Ibid.
dyadd Ta T/Tot^iaer/xei/a
Insipientes mortem quasi summum
27
de Virginitate.
24 Nihil illic dilationis aut morse est. malorum reformidant: sapientes quasi
Judicii enim dies vel beatitudinis retribu- requiem post labores et finem malorum
tio est scterna vel pornae :
tempus vero mor- expetunt. Ibid. cap. 8.
OF PU11UAT011Y. 155

these grounds exhorteth us, that "


2H
when that day cometh,
we should go without fear to Jesus our Redeemer, without
fear to the council of the patriarchs, without fear to Abraham
our father ; that without fear we should address ourselves
unto that assembly of saints and congregation of the righteous.
Forasmuch as we shall go to our fathers, we shall go to
those schoolmasters of our faith ; that albeit our works fail
us, yet faith may succour us, and our title of inheritance
defend us.""

Macarius, writing of the double state of those that depart


out of this life, affirmeth, that when the soul goeth out of
the body, if it be guilty of sin, the devil carrieth it away
with him unto his place; but when the holy servants of
God " remove out of their body, the quires of angels receive
2tf

their souls unto their own side, unto the pure world, and
so bring them unto the Lord." And in another place, moving
the question concerning such as depart out of this world
sustaining two persons in their soul, to wit, of sin and of
grace, whither they shall go that are thus held by two parts ?
he maketh answer, that thither they shall go where they
have their mind and affection settled. For " ^the Lord,
' 1

"
saith he, beholding thy mind, that thou fightest, and lovest
him with thy whole soul, separateth death from thy soul in
one hour, (for this is not hard for him to do), and taketh
thee into his own bosom and unto light. For he plucketh
thee away in the minute of an hour from the mouth of dark-
ness, and presently translateth thee into his own kingdom.
For God can easily do all these things in the minute of an
' 1
hour; this provided only, that thou bearest love unto him.
Than which what can be more direct against the dream of
88
His igitur freti, intrepide pergamus TO> Ku/cna>. Macar. yEgypt.
ad Redemptorem nostrum Jesum, intre- Homil. xxii.
30 BXeirwi/ 6 Ku/otos TOV vovv o-ov, OTI
pide ad Patriarcharum Concilium, intre-
pide ad patrem nostrum Abraham, cum Kal dyairas avTov l o\tj<s
dies advenerit, proficiscamur ; intrepide ia%(api%ei TOV QdvaTOv e/c T;;S

pergamus ad ilium sanctorum catum jus- xJ/i/XT/s


<rov fiia tapa, (ou/c ^<rrt yap avTw
torumque conventum. Ibimus enim ad <5u(rxe/oe,) Ka i irpocr\a/JL(3dveTai (re eis

patres nostros, ibimus ad illos nostrae fidei rota KoXirous avTOv Kal eZs TO ^>tiis.

praeceptores ; ut etiamsi opera desint, fides dpTrd^ei yap <re ev poirf) w'/oas e/c TOV <TTO-

opituletur, defendat haereditas. Ib. cap. 12. /X(ZTO TOU (TKOTOVI, Kal eU0eCOS fJLCTaTl-
19
"OTCLV eeX6o)<rii/ diro TOV o-co/iaros, 0t)<rt ere eis TtjV (3a<ri\eiav OVTOV. TU> ydp
oi \opol TO>V dyye\(av TrapaXa/mpdvovcriv 066J &V pOTTT) (i'paS TTttVTa CV^fpTJ t(TTL

IIVTWV Ttts i^i/xs ets TO iftiov /ucpos, cis i, IJLOVOV 'Iva TIJV
dydir^v CXJ' S 'wpo*
TOV KaQapov alwva, tcai OUTW? OUTOI/S Id. Homil. xxvi.
156 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

" 31 This
Popish purgatory? present world is the time of
repentance, the other of retribution; this of working, that
of rewarding; this of patient suffering, that of receiving
comfort," saith St Basil.

Gregory Nazianzen, in his funeral Orations, hath many


sayings to the same purpose being so far from thinking ;

of any purgatory pains prepared for men in the other world,


that he plainly denieth that 32 after the night of this present
" there
life
any purging" to be expected. And therefore
is

he 33
telleth us, "
that it is better to be corrected and purged
now, than to be sent unto the torment there, where the time
of punishing is, and not of purging." St Jerome comforteth
Paula for the death of her daughter Blassilla in this manner :

" ^Let the dead be


lamented, but such a one whom Gehenna
doth receive, whom hell doth devour, for whose pain the
everlasting fire doth burn. Let us, whose departure a troop
of angels doth accompany, whom Christ cometh forth to meet,
be more grieved if we do longer dwell in this tabernacle of
death; because, as long as we remain here, we are pilgrims
from God."
By all that hath been said, the indifferent reader may
easily discern what may be thought of the cracking Cardinal,
who would face us down that " 35 all the ancients, both Greek
and Latin, from the very time of the Apostles, did constantly
teach that there was a purgatory." Whereas his own partners
could tell him in his ear, that <<36 in the ancient writers there
is almost no mention of purgatory, especially in the Greek
31 34
OUTOS 6 aliuv Trjs jjLeTavoia's, e/ceivos Lugeatur mortuus; sed ille, quern
TT/S ai/Tairofioo-ecos' OUTOS TT/S epyacrias, Gehenna suscipit, quern tartarus devorat,
e/ceTvos T//S /itcrGairo&xrias' OUTOS TTJS in cujus poenam aeternus ignis aestuat :

vTrofiovfjs, e/ceivos T^S Tra^oa/cXtjo'ecos. nos, quorum exitum angelorum turba


Basil. Prooam. in Regulas fusius Dispu- comitatur, quibus obviam Christus oc-
tat. 'E/jyafftas yap o Trapwv /ceu/oos, 6 ^e currit, gravemur magis, si diutius in
fjie\\tav avrairodotreca^. Greg. Nazianz. tabernaculo isto mortis habitemus; quia
Orat. ix. ad Julianum. Ti}v e^LanoTrjv. quamdiu hie moramur, peregrinamur a
32
Mt/5e inrep TTJV VVKTU -rauT^v <TTI Domino. Hieron. Epist. xxv.
35
Tts KaQapa-is. Nazianz. Orat. xxxu. in Omnea veteres Graeci et Latini ab
Pascha. ipso tempore Apostolorum constanter do-
33 Bellarmin. de
'Qs /SeXTtoi/ elvai vvv TraifievQijvai cuerunt purgatorium esse.
Kal KaQapQfjvai, rj TTJ eKelQev fta<rdvcp Purgat. lib. i. cap. 15.
36
, tjvt/ca /coXao-ews /caipos, Alphons. de Castro advers. Haeres.
ou /caOdpo-ews. Id. Orat. xv. in lib. viii. tit. Indulgentia ; Jo. Roffens.
plagam
grandinis, indeque in locis communib. Assert. Lutheran. Confutat. Artie. 18;
Maximi, Serai. XLV. et Antonii, part. n. Polydor. Virgil, de Invent. Rer. lib. viii.
*Serm. xciv. 1.
cap.
VI.
I
01-' PURGATORY. 157

writers; and therefore that by the Grecians it is not believed


until this day." He
allegeth, indeed, a number of authorities
to blear men's eyes withal, which being narrowly looked into
will be found either to be counterfeit stuff, or to make nothing
at the purpose, as belonging either to the point of
all to

praying for the dead only, (which in those ancient times


had no relation to purgatory, as in the handling of the next
article we shall see,) or unto the fire of affliction in this life,
or to the fire that shall burn the world at the last
day,
or to the fire
prepared for the devil and his angels, or to
some other fire than that which he intended to kindle thereby.
This benefit only have we here gotten by his labours, that
he hath saved us the pains of seeking far for the forge,
from whence the first sparkles of that purging fire of his
brake forth. For the ancientest memorial that he bringeth
thereof, the places which he hath abused out of the canonical
and apocryphal Scriptures only excepted, 37 is out of Plato
in his Gorgias and Phaedo, Cicero in the end of his fiction
of the Dream of Scipio, and Virgil in the sixth book of his
1
jEneids ; and next after the Apostles times, ^out of Ter-
tullian in the seventeenth chapter of his book de Anima^ and

Origen in divers places. Only he must give us leave to put


him in mind, with what spirit Tertullian was led when he
wrote that book de Anima ; and with what authority he
strengtheneth that conceit of men's paying in hell for their
small faults before the resurrection, namely, of 39 the Paraclete ;

by whom he mean Montanus the arch-heretic, as there


if

is that he doth, we need not much


small cause to doubt

envy the Cardinal for raising up so worshipful a patron of


his purgatory.
But if Montanus come short in his testimony, Origen,
I am pays sure, it home with
measure, not pressed down
full

only and shaken together, but also running over. For he


was one of those, as the 40 Cardinal knoweth full well, " who
approved of purgatory so much, that he acknowledged no other
pains after this life, but purgatory penalties" only ; and there-
37
Bellarmin. de Purgator. lib. admiserit. Tertullian. de Anima, cap.
cap. 11. ult.
38
Id. ibid. cap. 7 et 10. 40 Non defuerunt, qui adeo purgatorium
39
Hoc etiam Paracletus frequentissi- |
probarint, ut nullas pcenas nisi purgatorias
me commendavit; si quis sermones ejus post hanc vitam agnoverint. ItaOrigenes
ex agnitione promissorum charismatum sensit. Bellarm. de Purgat. lib. i. cap. 2.
158 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [ciIAP.

fore in his judgment hell and purgatory being the selfsame


thing, such as blindly follow the Cardinal, may do well
to look that they stumble not upon hell while
they seek
for
purgatory. The Grecians profess, that they are afraid 41

to tell their people of


any temporary fire after this life, lest
it should breed in them a
spice of Origen's disease, and put
out of their memory the thought of eternal punishment;
and by this means occasioning them to be more careless of
their conversation, make them indeed fit fuel for those ever-

lasting flames. Which fear of theirs we perceive not may


to have been altogether causeless; when the purgatory of

Origen resembleth the purgatory of the Pope so nearly, that


the wisest of his Cardinals is so ready to mistake the one
for the other.And, to speak the truth, the one is but an
unhappy sprig cut off from the rotten trunk of the other ;
which sundry men long since endeavoured to gralT upon
other stocks, but could not bring unto any great perfection,
until the Pope's followers tried their skill upon it with that
success which now we behold. Some of the ancient that put
their hand to this work, extended the benefit of this fiery

purge unto all men in general ; others thought


fit to restrain

it unto such, as some way or other bare the name of Chris-


tians ; others to such Christians only, as had one time or
other made profession of the Catholic faith ; and others to
such alone as did continue in that profession until their

dying day.
Againstthese St Augustine doth learnedly dispute ;
all

proving wicked men, of what profession soever, shall


that
be punished with everlasting perdition. And whereas the
defenders of the last opinion did ground themselves upon
that place in the third chapter of the first Epistle to the
Corinthians, which the Pope also doth make the principal
42
foundation of his purgatory, although it be a probatory,
and not a purgatory fire that the Apostle there treateth of;

41
Et <5e vvv CK veov Kal irpovnaipov repl Tt}v o'lKeiav
eoe /u.rj
Toi50' VTroTrreu-

elvai oi iriarTol TO aitaviov, Kal Trj aicoviw KoXdarei, ovSel<s dyvoel.


Trav r]&ri TOLOVTO vofjiicrwcri Trvp, Kavrev- in lib. de Purgatorio Igne, a Bon. Vul-
Qev TCC 'Q/oiyei/oi's i/o<r?jcra>(n, Kal TtjV canio edit.
rrjs aioaviov KoXdcrews fUHJfHp TWV \\rvyuiV 42
Uniuscujusque opus quale sit, ignis
aTroiKiffaxrij/jTeXos /coA.a<reft>s Qefj.evoi' o6ev 1 Cor. iii. 13.
probabit.
to? TroXXa fj.ev c\l/Tai aToira, TroXXrju oe
VI.] OF PU K(i A TORY.

43
St Augustine maketh answer, that this sentence of the
Apostle is
very obscure, and to be reckoned among those'
things which St Peter saith are hard to be understood in
his writings, which men ought not to pervert unto their
own destruction; and freely u confesseth, that in this matter
he would rather hear more intelligent and more learned men
than himself. Yet this he deliver eth for his opinion ; that
by wood, hay, and stubble, is understood that overgreat
love which the faithful bear to the things of this life; and

by fire, that temporal tribulation which causeth grief unto


them by the loss of those things upon which they had too
much placed their affections. " But 45 whether in this life
1'
saith he, " men suffer such things, or whether some
only,
such judgments also do follow after this life, the meaning
which I have given of this sentence, as I suppose, abhorreth
not from the truth." And again: " 46 Whether they find
the fire of
transitory tribulation, burning those secular
which are pardoned from damnation, in the other
affections,
world only ; or whether here and there, or whether therefore
here, that they may not find them there ; I gainsay it not,
because peradventure it is true." And in another place :

" 47 That some such should be after this life, it is not


thing
incredible, and whether it be so it
may be
inquired, and
either be found or remain hidden some of the faithful
; that

by a certain purgatory fire, by how much more or less


they have loved these perishing goods, are so much the
more slowly or sooner saved." Wherein the learned Father
dealeth no otherwise than when, in disputing against the
same men, he is content, if they would acknowledge that
the wrath of God did remain everlastingly upon the damned,
to give them leave to think that their pains might some
way
or other be lightened or mitigated. Which yet, notwith-

43
Augustin. de Fide et Operib. cap. 15. transitoriae tribulationis inveniant; non
44
Id. ibid. cap. 16. redargue, quia forsitan verum est. Id.
45 Sive tantum homines
ergo in hac vita de Civitat. Dei, lib. xxi. cap. 26.
etiam post hanc vitam 47 Tale
ista patiuntur, sive aliquid etiam post hanc vitam
taliaquaedam judicia subsequuntur ; non fieri incredibile non est, et utrum ita sit

abhorret, quantum arbitror, a ratione veri- quaefi potest, et aut inveniri aut latere;
tatis iste intellectus hujus sententize. Id. nonnullos fideles per ignem quendam
ibid. cap. 16. purgatorium, quanto magis minusve bona
46
Sive ibi tantum, sive hie et ibi, sive pereuntia dilexerunt, tanto tardius citius-
ideo hie ut non ibi, secularia (quamvis a ve salvari. Id. in Enchirid. ad Laurent,

damnationevenialia) concremantem ignevn cap. 69.


J60 ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

48 " I do not therefore


standing, saith he, affirm, because I

oppose it not."
What the Doctors of the next
succeeding ages taught
herein, the writings of St Cyril, Gennadius,
may appear by
Olympiodorus, and others. St Cyril, from those last words
of our Saviour upon the cross, Father, into thy hands I
49
commend my spirit, delivereth this as the certain ground
and foundation of our hope " We to that
:
ought believe,
the souls of the saints, when they are departed out of their
bodies, are commended unto God's goodness, as unto the
hands of a most dear Father, and do not remain in the
earth, as some of the unbelievers have imagined, until they
have had the honour of burial neither are carried, as the ;

souls of the wicked be, unto a place of unmeasurable tor-

ment, that is, unto hell ; but rather fly to the hands of the
Father, this way being first prepared for us by Christ. For
he delivered up his soul into the hands of his Father, that
from it, and by it, a beginning being made, we might have
certain hope of this thing, firmly believing that after death
we be in the hands of God, and shall live a far better
shall
life for ever with Christ. For therefore Paul desired to be
1
dissolved, and to be with Christ.' Gennadius, in a book
wherein he purposely taketh upon him to reckon up the
particular points of doctrine received by the Church in his
time, when he cometh to treat of the state of souls separated
from the body, maketh no mention at all of purgatory, but
down this for one of his " 50 After the
layeth positions:
48 manibus Dei nos post mor-
Quod quidem non ideo confirmo, credentes, in
quoniam non refello. Id. de Civitat. Dei, tem vitamque multo meliorem ac
futures,
lib. xxi. cap. 24. perpetuo cum Christo victuros ; ideo enim
49
Quod magnge spei fundamen-
nobis Paulus desideravit resolvi et esse cum
tum atque originem praebet. Credere Christo. Cyrill. Alexandr. in Johan.

namque debemus, quum a corporibus lib. xii. cap. 36.

sanctorum animae abierint, tanquam in 50 Post ascensionem Domini ad ccelos


manus carissimi patris, bonitati divinas omnium sanctorum animae cum Christo
commendari; nee, ut quidam infidelium sunt, et exeuntes de corpore ad Christum
crediderunt, in terris conversari, quousque vadunt, exspectantes resurrectionem cor-
sepulturae honoribus affectae sint ; nee, ut poris sui, ut ad integram et perpetuam
peccatorum animae, ad immensi cruciatus beatitudinem cum ipso pariter immuten-
locum, id est, ad inferos, deferri ; itinere
tur sicut et peccatorum animaa, in in-
:

hoc nobis a Christo primum prseparato ; ferno sub timore positae, exspectant resur-
sed in manus potius patris evolare. Tra- rectionem sui corporis, ut cum ipso ad
didit enim animam suam manibus geni-
pcenam detrudantur aeternam. Gennad.
toris, ut ab ilia et per illam facto initio, de Ecclesiastic. Dogmatib. cap. 79.
certain hujus rei spem habeamus; firmiter
VI.] OF PURGATORY. 161

ascension of our Lord into heaven, the souls of all the saints
are with and departing out of the body, go unto
Christ,
Christ, expecting the resurrection of their body, that together
with it they may be changed unto perfect and perpetual
blessedness; as the souls of the sinners also, being placed
in hell under fear, expect the resurrection of their body,
that with it they may be thrust unto everlasting pain."
In like manner Olympiodorus, expounding that place of
5}
Ecclesiastes, If the tree fall toward the south, or toward
the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall
" 52 In whatsoever
be, maketh this inference thereupon:

place therefore, whether of light or of darkness, whether


in the work of wickedness or of virtue, a man is taken at
his death, in that degree and rank doth he remain ; either
in light with the just and Christ the king of all, or in dark-
ness with the wicked and the prince of this world."
The "first whom we find directly to have held, that " 53
for
certain light faults there is a purgatory fire" provided before
the day of judgment, was Gregory the First, about the end
of the sixth age after the birth of our Saviour Christ. It was
his imagination, that the end of the world was then at hand,
and that " M as when the night beginneth to be ended, and the
day to spring before the rising of the sun, the darkness is
in some sort mingled together with the
light, until the remains
of the departing night be turned into the light of the follow-
ing day ; so the end of this world was then intermingled with
the beginning of the world to come, and the very darkness
of the remains thereof made transparent by a certain mixture
of spiritual things." And this he assigneth for the reason,
" in those last times so many things were made clear
"why
51
Eccles. xi. 3. incipit oriri, ante solis ortum simul aliquo
2
'Ej; av Toiyapovv TOITO), erre TOV
(Jo $' modo tenebrae cum luce commixtae sunt,
</>O>TO? elre TOV OTCOTOI/S, eJ/re -roJ T^S quousque disced entis noctis relliquiae in lu-
KaKias epyw CLTC TU> TTJ? apexes, jcara- ce diei subsequentis perfecte vertantur ; ita

Xj</>0?7 ev Tf) TeXevTy o avQpwrros, ev hujus mundi finis jam cum futuri seculi ex-
GKeivin [level TU> /3a0/iai Kal Trj Ta'ei, 17 ev ordio permiscetur, atque ipsae relliquiarum
<J>U)TI fJieTa TOIV SiKaiwv Kal TOV Trafi/Sa- tenebrae quadam jam rerum spiritualium

X/JKTTOU, ij ev TOJ O-KOTCI /uei> TtJav permixtione translucent. Id. ibid. cap. 41 .
55
Kal TOV KOv/moKpaTopos. Olymp. Quid hoc est, quseso te, quod in his
in Eccles. xi. extremis temporibus tarn multa de anima-
63
Sed tamen de quibusdam levibus cul- bus clarescunt quae ante latuerunt ; ita ut
pis esse ante judicium purgatorius ignis apertis revelationibus atque ostensionibus
credendus est. Greg. Dial. lib. iv. cap. 39. venturum seculum inferre se nobis atque
54
Quemadmodum cum nox finiri et dies aperire videatur? Ibid. cap. 40.
L
162 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

touching the souls, which before lay hid ; so that by open


revelations and apparitions the world to come might seem
to bring in and open itself" unto them. But as we see that
he was plainly deceived in the one of his conceits, so have we
just cause to call into question the verity of the other; the
Scripture especially having informed us, that a people for
5>
inquiry of matters should not have recourse to the dead,
but to their God, to the law, and to the testimony; it
57
being not God's manner to send men from the dead to
instruct the living, but to remit them unto Moses and the
prophets, that they may hear them. And the reason is well
worth the observation, which the author of the Questions
to Antiochus rendereth, why God would not permit the soul
of any of those that departed hence to return back unto us

again, and to declare the state of things in hell unto us ; lest


<c58
much error might arise from thence unto us in this life.
For many of the devils," saith he, " might transform them-
selves into the shapes of those men that were deceased, and

say that they were risen from the dead ; and so might spread
many false matters and doctrines of the things there, unto
our seduction and destruction."
Neither is it to be passed over, that in those apparitions
and revelations related by Gregory, there is no mention
made of any common lodge in hell, appointed for purging
of the dead, which is that which the Church of Rome now
striveth for, but of certain souls only, that for their punish-
ment were confined to 59 baths and other such places here
upon earth; which our Romanists may believe if they list,
but must seek for the purgatory they look for somewhere else.

And yet may they save themselves that labour, if


they will
be advised by the Bishops assembled in the Council of
Aquisgran, about 24-3 years after these visions were published
by Gregory, who will resolve them out of the word of God,
how " 60 The sins
sins are punished in the world to come.

u Isai. viii. 19, 20. ooy/u.aTa irepl Ttav e/cet el*xpv


87 Luke xvi. 29, 30. raa-Trelpai TT/OOS Tr\v ij/JLtov ir\dvi]V Kai
38
IloXXfj evTeudev irXdvri ev TU> /3/a \
aTrwXeiav. Ad Antioch. Quaest, XXXV.
TiKTe<r6ai eyueXXev. iro\\ol ydp TWV Sat- inter Opera Athanasii.
59
fjiovtov cv <rxrina<> dvdpannav elyov Gregor. Dial. lib. iv. cap. 40 et 55.
60Tribus itaque modis peocata morta-
peTaaxnuari^ecrOai TWV Koi/mriQevTuv,
Kai e/j.e\\ov etc veKpwv eytjyepflai airrous lium vindicantur ; duobus in hac vita,
Xryeiv, Kai iroXXa \lsevSij -Trpdyfia-ra Kai tertio in futura vita. De duobus ita Apo-
VI.]
OF PURGATORY. 163

" are
of men," say they, punished three manner of ways ;

two in this life, and the third in the life to come. Of those
two the Apostle saith, If we would judge ourselves, we
should not be judged of the Lord. This is the punishment
wherewith, by the inspiration of God, every sinner, by repent-
ing for his offences, taketh revenge upon himself. But where
the Apostle consequently adjoineth, When we are judged,
we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be
condemned with this world ; this is the punishment which

Almighty God doth mercifully inflict upon a sinner, accord-


ing to that saying, Whom God loveth he chasteneth, and
he scourgeth every son that he receiveth. But the third
is
very fearful and terrible, which by the most just judg-
ment of God shall be executed, not in this world, but in
that which is to come, when the just Judge shall say, Depart

from me, ye cursed, into everlasting Jire, which is prepared


for the devil and his angels" Add hereunto the saying
of the author of the books de Vanitate Seculi, and de
Rectitudine Catholicce Conversations, wrongly ascribed to
" 01
St Augustine Know, that when the soul is separated from
:

the body, presently it is either placed in paradise for his good


works, or cast headlong into the bottom of hell for his sins."
As also of the second sermon de Consolatione Mortuorum:
" When the soul departeth, which cannot be seen with
62

carnal eyes, it is received by the angels, and placed either


in the bosom of Abraham, if it be faithful, or in the
custody
61
stolus inquit, Si nosmetipsos judicaveri- Scitote, quod cum anima a corpore
mus, a Domino non judicabimur. Haec evellitur, statim aut in paradiso pro men-
est vindicta, quam inspirante Deo omnis tisbonis (as it is in the one, or, pro bonis
peccator, pro suis admissis poenitendo, in operibus, as it is in the other book, both

seipso vindicat. Quod autem prosecutus importing the selfsame thing} collocatur,
idem Apostolus infert, Cum judicamur aut certe pro peccatis in inferni tartara prse-
autem, a Domino corripimur, ut non cum cipitatur. Lib. de Vanit. Seculi, cap. 1,
mundo damnemur haec est vindicta, quam
; etde Rectitud. Catholic. Conversat. (cujus
omnipotens Deus misericorditer peccatori auctor Eligius Noviomensis, ) Tom. ix.
irrogat, juxta illud, Deus quern amat Operum Augustini.
corripit, flagellat autem omnem filium 63 Recedens anima, quae carnalibus
quern recipit. Tertia autem exstat valde oculis videri non potest, ab angelis sus-
pertimescenda atque terribilis, quae non in cipitur, et collocatur aut in sinu Abrahae,
hoc sed in futuro, justissimo Dei judicio, si fidelis est, aut in carceris inferni custo-
fiet
quando Justus Judex dicturus
seculo, dia, si peccatrix est, donee veniat statutus
est,Discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem dies quo suum recipiat corpus, et apud
aeternum, qui paratus est diabolo et ange- tribunal Christi judicis veri reddat suorum
lis ejus.
Capitul. Aquisgran. Concil. ad operum rationem. Serm. IT. de Consolat.
Fipinum Miss. lib. i. cap. 1. Mortuor. ibid.
164 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

of the prison of hell, if it be sinful, until the day ap-


pointed come wherein it is to receive the body, and render
an account of the works thereof at the tribunal of Christ
the true judge," And that in the days of Otto Frisingensis
himself, who wrote in the year of our Lord 1146, the doc-
trine of purgatory was esteemed only a private assertion
held by some, and not an article of faith generally received
by the whole Church. (For why should he else write of
it in this manner: " 63
That there is in hell a place of
purgatory, wherein such as are to be saved are either only
troubled with darkness, or decocted with the fire of ex-
piation,SOME do affirm"?) And lastly, that the purgatory
wherewith the Romish Clergy doth now delude the world,
is a new device, never heard of in the Church of God for

the space of a thousand years after the birth of our Saviour


Christ.
For the Gregorian purgatory, which reached no further
than to the expiation of " 64 small and very light faults,"
would not serve these men's turn, who very providently
considered, that little use could be made of that fire if it

had no other but fuel For such pecca-


this to maintain it.

dilloes as these, say they, may be taken away in this life


65
by knocking the breast, by receiving the Bishop's blessing,
by being sprinkled with holy water, and by such other easy
remedies ; that if this were all the matter to be cared for,
men needed not greatly to stand in fear of purgatory. Yea,
admit they should be so extremely negligent in their life-
time that they forgat to use any of these helps, they might
for all this at the time of their death be more afraid than
" 66 fear
hurt; yea, this alone," if there were nothing else,
a means "
might prove to purge their souls, at the very
departing, from those faults of the lightest kind," if Gregory
which is more, divers of their own
may be credited. Nay,

*3 65
Esse apud inferos locum purgatorium, Sext. Prooem.in Glossa, verb. Bene-
in quo salvandi vel tenebris tantum affi- dictionem ; Francisc. a Victoria in Summa

ciantur, vel expiationis igne decoquantur, Sacramentor. Eccles. num. 110; Jacob,
QUID AM asserunt. Otto Fris. Chron. lib. de Graffiis, Decis. Cas. Conscient. part. i.
viii. cap. 26. lib. i.
cap. 6, num. 10.
64 66
Sed tamen hoc de parvis minimisque Sed plerumque de culpis minimis
peccatis fieri posse credendum est; sicut ipse solus pavor egredientes justorum
est assiduus otiosus sermo, immoderatus animas purgat. Gregor. Dialog, lib. iv.
risus, &c. Greg. Dial. lib. iv. cap. 39. cap. 46.
V,.] OF PURGATORY. 165

"elder divines, to whom we may adjoin Cardinal ^Cajetan


also in these latter days, have taught, that all the remains
of sin in God^s children are quite abolished by final grace
at the very instant of their dissolution ; so that the stain of
the least sin is not left behind to be carried unto the
other world.
Now, purgatory, as Bellarmine describeth it, is a " 69
cer-
tain which as in a prison those souls are purged
place, in
after this life which were not fully purged in this life; that

being so purged, they may be able to enter into heaven,


whereinto no unclean thing can enter. And of this," saith
" is all the If that be so, their own
he, controversy."
doctors, you see, will quickly bring this controversy unto an
end. For if the souls be fully purged here from all spot
of sin, what need have they to be sent unto any other pur-

gatory after this life? Yes, say they, although the fault
be quite remitted, and the soul clearly freed from the pol-
lution thereof, yet may there remain a temporal punishment
due for the very mortal sins that have been committed;
which, if relief do not otherwise come by the help of such
as are alive, must be soundly laid on in purgatory. But
why in purgatory, say we, seeing here there is no more
purging work left? for the fault and blot being taken
away already, what remaineth yet to be purged? The
punishment only, they say, is left behind and punishment, :

I
hope, they will not hold to be the thing that
is
purged
away by punishment. Again, we desire them to tell us,
what Father or ancient doctor did ever teach this strange
divinity, that a man being clearly purged from the blot
of his sin, and fully acquitted here from the fault thereof,
should yet in the other world be punished for it with such
grievous torments, as the tongue of man is not able to express ?
68 xxni.
Cajetan.Opusc. Tom.
87
Delet gratia finalis peccatum veniale i. Tract,
in ipsa dissolutione corporis et animae, &c. de Purgator. Quaest. 1.
Hoc ab antiquis dictum est ; sed nunc 69
Locus quidam, in in
quo tanquam
communiter tenetur, quod peccatum ve- carcere post hanc vitam purgantur
niale cum hinc deferatur a multis, etiam animae quae in hac non plene purgatae
quantum ad culpam, in purgatoria purga-
fuerunt; ut nimirum sic purgatas in coe-
tur. Albert. Magu. in Compend. Theo- lum nihil intrabit
ingredi valeant, quo
logicae Veritat. lib. iii. cap. 13. Vide De hoc est tota contro-
coinquinatum.
Alexand. Halens. Summ. part. iv. Quaest. versia. Bellarmin. de Purgator. lib. i.

xv. Membr. 3, Art. 3 ; Durand. lib. iv. 1.


cap.
Dist. XLV. Quaest. i. &c.
166 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [cHAl'.

And yet, as new and as absurd a doctrine as it is, the Pope


and his adherents have builded thereupon both their guile-
ful
purgatory, with which it suiteth as evil-favouredly as
may be, and their
indulgences; which, by their
gainful
own doctrine,
70
free not a man from
the guilt of any fault,
either mortal or venial, but only from the guilt of the tem-

poral punishment, which remaineth after the fault hath been


forgiven.
When Thomas Aquinas and other friars had brought
the frame of this new building unto some perfection, and
fashioned all things therein unto their own best advantage,
the doctors of the Greek Church did publicly oppose them-
selves against it. Matthseus Quaestor by name wrote against
Thomas herein, whose book is still preserved in the emperor's
library at Vienna. So Athanasius's Disputation against Pur-
gatory is, or lately was, to be seen in the French King's
library, and the like of Germanus, Patriarch of Constan-
tinople, and others elsewhere. The Apology of the Grecians
touching the same subject is
commonly to be had, which
was penned by 71 Marcus Eugenicus, Archbishop of Ephesus,
and 72 presented to Cardinal Cusanus, and the deputies of
the Council of Basil, in the year 14-38, the 14th of June;
73
the very same day wherein Bessarion, Archbishop of Nice,

disputed with the Latins of the same matter in the Council


assembled at Ferrara. In that Apology, the Grecians begin
their with
this proposition: A " 74
Disputation purgatory
fire, and a punishment by fire which is
temporal, and shall
at last have an end, neither have we received from our
doctors, neither do we know that the Church of the East
doth 1 '' " 75
have we
maintain. They add further: Neither
70 Id. de Indulgent, lib. 73
i.
cap. 7, Pro- Act. Concil. Florentin.
74
pos. i. Tlvp KaQaprqpiov Kal Ko\a<Tiv Sid trv-
71
Sixt. Senens, lib. vi. Biblioth. Sanct. /oos Trpo&Kaipov, Kal TeXos efcovcrav, oXws
Annotat. 259. Tj/xeTs VTTO TWV i}fj,eTGp(av ov Trapei\i')<pa-
72
Responsio Graecorum ad positionem
Latinorum, opinionem ignis purgatorii ev typovovcrav. Apolog.
fundantium et probantium. Quag lecta Gregor. de Purgator. a Bonav. Vulcan,
et data fuit reverendissimis et reverendis edit.
75 "OTI ft)Te Trapd TIVOS riav
patribus, et Dominis deputatis, die sab-
bati, xiv. mensis Junii, 1438, in sacristia \oav avTO jrapei\i'](pafJLev CTI
i
l

fratrum minorum Basileae, p^aesentata <pof3os ov /xi/c/oos vTroOpuTrrt


Nicolao Cusano. Martin. Cifusius in TT.Vp Trpo&Kaipov vTTo&efJLevot TrapddiKOv TC
Turco-Graecia, p. 186, ex libro MS. ov, TW travTi \rifjLijvi6fie6a

Johan. Capnionis. ir\ijpw[iaTi. Ibid.


V,.]
OF PURGATORY. 16?

received it and, moreover, no small


from any of our doctors ;

fear doth us, lest, by admitting a temporary fire,


trouble
both penal and purgatory, we should destroy the full con-
sent of the Church." And thereupon they conclude very
" 76
For these reasons, therefore, neither have
peremptorily,
we hitherto affirmed any such thing, neither will we at all

affirm it."

Yet, within a year after, the Pope and his ministers


prevailed so far with them in the
Council at Florence, that
were
1
sake " T7 the middle
they content for peace to yield, that
sort of souls were in a place of punishment; but whether
that were fire, or darkness and tempest, or something else,

they would not contend." And accordingly was the pre-


tended union betwixt them and the Latins drawn up, that,
" TO if such as be
truly penitent die in God's favour before
they have satisfied for their sins of commission and omission
by worthy fruits of penance, their souls are purged after
death with purgatory punishments;" neither fire, nor any
other kind of punishment being specified in particular. But
neither would Marcus, the Bishop of Ephesus, who was
one of the legates of the Patriarchs of Antioch and of Jeru-
salem, consent to this union; neither could the Greek
Church afterwards by any means be drawn to yield unto
it. And so unto this day the Romish purgatory is rejected
as well by the Grecians as by the Muscovites and Russians,
the Cophtites and Abassines, the Georgians and Armenians,

together with the Syrians and Chaldaeans, that are subject


to the Patriarchs of Antioch and Babylon, from Cyprus
and Pala3stina unto the East Indies. And this may suffice
for the discovery of this new-found creek of purgatory.

76 78 vere poenitentes in Dei caritate


Aid TavTa ouv oudeVoTe /ne'x/n TOW Si
vvv 6lpiiKa.fj.ev TOIOVTOV ovdev, oW o\ws decesserint, antequam dignis pcenitentiae
cpovfjiev. Ibid. fructibus de commissis satisfecerint et
77 At Se ei> eorum animas poenis purgatoriis
/j.e(rai inrdp')(ov<Tt fjii-v /3a<r- omissis,
vi(TTripiu>, /cat etTe irvp eo'Tiv, etTC o0os post mortem purgari. Eugenii iv. Bulla
icai 0ueX\a, ere TI eTepov, oil 8ia<ftep6- Unionis. Ibid. Cujus avToypafyov etiam
Me0a. Concil. Florentin. Sess. xxv. inter Kei/uj\t<z Cottoniana vidimus.
168 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD.

PRAYER
for the Dead, as it is used in the Church of

Rome, doth necessarily suppose purgatory; and therefore


whatsoever hath been alleged out of the Scriptures and
Fathers against the one, doth stand in full force against the
other: so that here we need not actum agere, and make
a new ^ork of overthrowing that which hath been sufficiently
beaten down already. But on the other side, the admittal of
purgatory doth not necessarily infer prayer for the dead :

nay, if we shall suppose, with our adversaries, that purga-


tory is the ^prison from whence none shall come out until
they have paid the utmost farthing, their own paying, and
not other men's praying, must be the thing they are to trust
unto, if ever they look to be delivered out of that jail. Our
Romanists indeed do commonly take it for granted, that
" 2
purgatory and prayer for the dead be so closely linked
together, that the one doth necessarily follow the other;"
but in so doing they reckon without their host, and greatly
mistake the matter. For howsoever they may deal with
their own
devices as they please, and link their prayers with
their purgatory as closely as they list; yet shall they never
be able to shew, that the commemoration and prayers for
the dead, used by the ancient Church, had any relation unto
their purgatory ; and therefore, whatsoever they were, Popish

prayers we are sure they were not. I easily foresee, that


the full opening of the judgment of the Fathers in this
point will hardly stand with that brevity which I intended
to use in treating of these questions; the particulars be so

many, that necessarily do incur into the handling of this


argument. But I suppose the reader will be content rather
to dispense with me in that behalf, than be sent away unsa-
tisfied in a matter wherein the adversary beareth himself
confident beyond measure, that the whole stream of anti-
quity runneth clearly upon his side.

3
I Matt. v.^6. Bishop against Perkins's Reformed Catholic, part n. p. 149.
VII.]
OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD. 169

That the truth, then, of things may the better appear,


we are here prudently to distinguish the original institution
of the Church from the private opinions of particular doc-
tors, which waded further herein than the general intend-
ment of the Church did give them warrant and diligently ;

to consider, that the memorials, oblations, and prayers made


for thedead at the beginning had reference to such as rested
from their labours, and not unto any souls which were
thought to be tormented hi that Utopian purgatory, whereof
there was no news stirring in those days. This may be
gathered, first, by the practice of the ancient Christians,
laid down by the author of the Commentaries upon Job,
which are wrongly ascribed unto Origen, in this manner :

'* 3
We observe the memorials of the saints, and devoutly
keep the remembrance of our parents or friends which die
in the faith ; as well rejoicing for their refreshing, as request-

ing also for ourselves a godly consummation in the faith.


Thus therefore do we celebrate the death, not the day of
the birth ; because they which die shall live for ever. And
we celebrate it, calling together religious persons with the

priests,the faithful with the clergy ; inviting moreover the

needy and the poor, feeding the orphans and widows, that
our festivity may be for a memorial of rest to the souls
departed, whose remembrance we celebrate, and to us may
become a sweet savour in the sight of the eternal God."
Secondly, by that which St Cyprian writeth of Laurentius
and Ignatius, whom he acknowledgeth to have received of
the Lord palms and crowns for their famous martyrdom,
and yet presently addeth: " 4
We offer sacrifices always
for them, when we and days of the
celebrate the passions

martyrs with an anniversary commemoration." Thirdly, by


that which we read in the author of the Ecclesiastical

Hierarchy, set out under the name of Dionysius the Areo-

3 ut festivitas nostra in
Propterea et memorias sanctorum fa- saturantes, fiat

cimus, et parentum nostrorum vel amico- memoriam requiei defunctis animabus,


rum fide morientium devote memoriam nobis autem efficiatur in odorem suavi-
agimus ; tarn illorum refrigerio gaudentes, tatis in conspectu aeterni Dei. Lib. iii.
quam etiam nobis piam consummationem Comment, in Job. inter Opera Origenis.
4 memi-
in fide postulantes,, Celebramus nimirum, Sacrificia pro eis semper, ut

religiosos cum sacerdotibus convocantes, martyrum passio-


nistis, offerimus, quoties
fideles una cum clero; invitantes adhuc nes et dies anniversaria commemoratione

egenot et pauperes, pupillos et viduas celebramus. Cyprian. Epist. xxxiv.


170 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

pagite for where the party deceased is described


:
by him
to have departed out of this life, " 5 replenished with divine
joy, as now not fearing any change to worse," being come
unto the end of all his labours, and to have been both
privately acknowledged by his friends, and publickly pro-
nounced by the ministers of the Church, to be a happy
" 6
man, and to be verily admitted into the society of the
saints that have been from the beginning of the world ;"

yet doth he declare, that the Bishop made prayer for him,
" 7 God
(upon what ground, we shall afterward hear), that
would forgive him
sins that he had committed all the

through human infirmity, and bring him into the light and
the land of the living, into the bosoms of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, into the place from whence pain and sorrow and
sighing flieth." Fourthly, by the funeral ordinances of the
Church related by St Chrysostom, which were appointed
to admonish the living that the parties deceased were in
a state of joy, and not of grief: " 8 For tell me," saith he,
" what do the
bright lamps mean ? do we not accompany
them therewith as champions? What mean the hymns ?' n
" 9 Consider what thou dost
sing at that time. Return, my
soul, unto thy rest ; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully
with thee. And again / will fear no evil, because thou :

art with me. again Thou art my refuge from the


And :

affliction that compasseth me. Consider what these Psalms


mean."
Fifthly, by the forms of prayers that are found in the
ancient Liturgies. As in that of the churches of Syria,
attributed unto St Basil: " Be mindful, O Lord, of them
10

5
Vide supra p. 153. '"Evvorjtrov TL i|/ctXXeis /cotTa TOV
6 TUiV
KOLVWVOV OVTOJS OVTO. Ct'Tr

dyioov, te/ows dvaKr)pvTTo/jLevov. dva.Tra.vGLV arov, OTI Kuptos euripyeTr)(re <re.

Dionys. Ecclesiast. Hierarch. cap. 1. Kal Trd\iv, Ov <pofBr]6^(ro/uLaL /ca:a, OTI crv

fiev ovv eix*' T ^ S


7 'H
/ULCT' e/uiov el. /cat 7rcfX.il/, 2u /LLOU el /ca-ra-

et>rat Trai/ra /xei/ dfyelvai j CTTTO 6Xii^ea)s T^S Tre/oiexowo'Tjs /ue.


<5t' evvorja-ov TI ftovXovTaL OVTOL ol

aTaTa^at $e avT&v ev <pu)Ti Id. ibid.


10
Kal X40 ?
/ "QtavTiav, eis KoA.7rous 'A(3pad/m Memento etiam, Domine, eorum qui
'Ia:a)/3, ev TOTTW ov diredpa \
decesserunt migraruntque ex hac vita, et
Kal \vTrt] Kal o-Tej/ay/uos. Ibid. ,

episcoporum orthodox orum qui inde a


EtTreyap /not TI fiov\ovTaL at Xa/iTra- Petro et Jacobo Apostolis ad hunc usque
at ffiai&paL ; ou\ a5s a6XtjTas aicrous diem rectum fidei verbum clare sunt
I de oi vpvot ; Chrysost. professi ; et nominatim Ignatii, Dionysii,
in Epist. ad Hebr. Homil. iv. Julii, ac reliquorum divorum laudabilis
VII, OF FRAY till FOR THE DEAD.

which are dead, and are departed out of this life, and of
the orthodox Bishops, which, from Peter and James the

Apostles until this day, have clearly professed the right


word of faith; and namely, of Ignatius, Dionysius, Julius,
and the rest of the saints of worthy memory. Be mindful,
O Lord, of them also which have stood unto blood for
religion, and by righteousness
and holiness have fed thy
holy flock."" And in the Liturgy fathered upon the
" n We offer unto thee for all the saints which
Apostles:
have pleased thee from the beginning of the world, patri-
archs, prophets, just men, apostles, martyrs, confessors,
bishops, priests, deacons," &c. And in the Liturgies of the
churches of Egypt, which carry the title of St Basil, Gre-
" 12 Be
gory Nazianzen, and Cyril of Alexandria: mindful,
O Lord, of thy saints ; vouchsafe to remember all thy saints
which have pleased thee from the beginning, our holy
fathers, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, con-
fessors, preachers, evangelists, and all the souls of the just
which have and -especially the holy,
died
; in the faith

glorious, the evermore Virgin Mary, the Mother of God ;


and St John the forerunner, the Baptist and martyr; St
first deacon and martyr ; St Mark the apostle,
Stephen, the
evangelist, and martyr," &c. And in the Liturgy of the
church of Constantinople, ascribed to St Chrysostom " 13 We :

offer unto thee this reasonable service for those who are

memoriae. Memento, Domine, eorum quo- sanctae, gloriosae, semperque virginis Dei
que qui usque ad sanguinem pro religione genitricis M arise, et Sancti Johannis prae-

steterunt, et gregem tuum sacrum per cursoris, baptistae et martyris; Sancti


justitiam et sanctitatem paverunt, &c. Stephani protodiaconi et protomartyris ;

Basilii Anaphora, ab Andr. Masio ex Sancti Marci evangelists? et


apostoli,
Syriaco con versa. martyris, &c. Liturg. jEgyptiac. Basil.
11
*ETI Trpo<r<pepo/j.ev <roi Kai inre/o irdv- Greg, et Cyrilli, a Victorio Scialach ex
T(av TtJav aV aiwvo? vaptja"Tii<rdvT<av ffoi Arabico convers. p. 22, 47, et 60, edit.
dyiwv, jraTpiapx.tov, irpo<j>r\T(av, SiKaitav, August, ann. 1604.
13
<firo<rroXu)i/, fiapTUpwif, o/uoXayrjTtuv, t-iri- *ETI TrpofftftepofJiev CFOI TIJV XoyiKijv
CTKOTTUIV, 7r/oea/3uTe'/oajj/, GiaKoviav, &C. TavTt\v Xa-r/oeiai/ inrep TUJI/ cv 'Trttrrei

Constitut. Apostolic, lib. cap. 12.


viii. , TrpoiraTepwv,
12 sanctorum tuo-
Memento, Domine,
rum :
dignare ut recorderis omnium sanc- KtipvKiov, evayyeXta-riJov, fiapTupwv, bfio-
torum tuorum qui tibi placuerunt ab \oyr)T(i)v,eyKpaTfvraiv, Kai irai/ros iriiev-
e
initio, patrum nostrorum sanctorum, pa- fiaTos ev TriffTei TCTeXeitafievou,
triarcharum, prophetarum, apostolorum, T^S Trai/ayias, dxpdvrov,
martyrum, confessorum, evangelizantium, fjv 8e<nroj'vtjs tj/uai/, QCOTOKOV, Kai dei-
evangelistarum, et omnium spirituuvn jus- jrapQevou Mapt'os. ChrysOSt. Liturg.
tonim qui obierunt in fide; et imprimis Griec.
172 ANSWEE TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

at rest in the faith, our forefathers, fathers, patriarchs,


prophets, and apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs,
persons, and every spirit perfected in
confessors, religious
the faith, but especially for our most holy, immaculate,
most blessed Lady, the Mother of God and aye Virgin
Mary." Which kind of oblation for the saints, sounding
somewhat harshly in the ears of the Latins, Leo Thuscus,
in his translation, thought best to express it to their better
" u We
liking after this manner offer unto thee this reason-
:

able service for the faithfully deceased, for our fathers and
forefathers, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, con-
fessors, and all the saints interceding*" for them? As if
of " 15
the phraseoffering for the martyrs'" were not to
be found in St ChrysostonVs own works; and more univer-
" 16 for the both the fathers and the
sally just, patriarchs,
the prophets and and evangelists, and martyrs,
apostles,
and confessors, the bishops, and such as led a solitary life,
and the whole order,*" in the suffrages of the Church rehearsed
by Epiphanius. Yea, and in the Western Church itself:
" 17 for the of those that are at Atha-
spirits rest, Hilary,

nasius, Martin, Ambrose, Augustine, Fulgentius, Leander,


Isidorus," &c. As may be seen in the Muzarabical Office
used in Spain.
Sixthly, this may be confirmed out of the Funeral Orations
of St Ambrose; in one whereof, touching the Emperor Valen-
tinian and his brother Gratian, thus he speaketh: " 18 Let
us believe that Valentinian is ascended from the desert,
that is to say, from this dry and unmanured place unto

14
Adhuc offerimus tibi rationabile hoc Athanasii, Martini, Ambrosii, Augustini,
obsequium pro fideliter dormientibus, pro Fulgentii, Leandri, Isidori, &c. Offic.

patribus et proavis nostris ; intervenienti- Muzarab. apud Eugen. Roblesium, in


bus patriarchis, prophetis, apostolis, mar- Vita Francisci Ximenii.
18
tyribus, confessoribus, et omnibus sanctis. Credamus quia ascendit a deserto,

Chrysost. Liturg. Latin. hoc est, ex hoc arido et inculto loco, ad


16
Tt o'iei TO VTrep /jLapriipcov Trpoortpepe- illas florulentas delectationes, ubi cum
fratre conjunctus aetemae vitae fruitur vo-
<r0ai ; Chrysost. Homil. xxi. in Act. Tom.
iv. edit. Savil. p. 736, et Tom. vii. p. 928. luptate. Beati ambo si quid meae ora-
:

18
de StKaiwv, KO.L ira.Tep<av KCII tiones valebunt, nulla dies vos silentio
'Y-Tre/0

ira.TpLap'xiJav, TrpcHpijTwv KCLL a.TroGToX.tnv, praeteribit ; nulla inhonoratos vos mea


/cot evayye\i(TTcav /cat /j.ap-rupiav /cat ofjio- transibit oratio; nulla nox non donates

\oyr\TU3V, eiria-KOTTtav -re /cat dva\(apr}Ttav, aliqua precum mearum contextione trans-
/cat iravros rov Ta'y/uaTOS. Epiphan. curret. Omnibus vos oblationibus fre-
Haeres. LXXV. quentabo. Ambros. de Obitu Valenti-
17 Pro Hilarii, niani Imp.
spiritibus pausantium,
VII.]
OF PEAYER FOR THE DEAD. 173

those flowery delights, where, being conjoined with his bro-


ther, he enjoyeth the pleasure of everlasting life. Blessed
are you both if my orisons:shall prevail any thing, no day
shall overslip you in silence; no oration of mine shall pass

you over unhonoured ; no night shall run by, wherein I


will not bestow upon you some portion of my prayers.
11
With all oblations will I frequent you. In another, he
" 19
prayeth thus unto God: Give rest to thy perfect ser-
vant Theodosius, that rest which thou hast prepared for
" ^Theo-
thy saints." And yet he had said before of him :

dosius, of honourable memory, being freed from doubtful

fight, doth now enjoy everlasting light


and continual tran-

quillity ; and for the things which he did in this body he


rejoiceth in the fruits of God's reward; because he loved
"
the Lord
God, he hath obtained the society of the saints
his
And afterward also, " 21 Theodosius remaineth in light, and
11

glorieth in the company of the saints. In a third, he


"
prayeth thus for his brother Satyrus: ^Almighty God,
I now commend unto thee his harmless soul ;to thee do I
make my oblation accept mercifully and ;
graciously the
11
officeof a brother, the sacrifice of a priest: although he
" ^he had
had directly pronounced of him before, that
entered into the kingdom of heaven, because he believed
the word of God, 11 and excelled in many notable virtues.

Lastly, in one of his Epistles, he comforteth Faustinus for


the death of his sister after this manner: " 24 Do not the
carcases of so many half-ruined cities, and the funerals of

19
Da requiem perfecto servo tuo Theo- fraternum munus, sacrificium sacerdotis.
dosio, requiem quam praeparasti sanctis Id. de Obitu Fratris.
Id. de Obitu Theodosii Imp. 23
tuis. Intravit in
regnum coelorum, quoniam
80 Absolutus igitur dubio certamine, credidit Dei verbo, &c. Id. ibid.
24
fruitur nunc augustae memorise Theodo- Tot igitur semirutarum urbium ca-
sius luce perpetua, tranquillitate diutur- davera, terrarumque sub eodem conspectu
na; et pro iis quae in hoc gessit corpore exposita funera, non te admonent unius
munerationis divines fructibus gratula- sanctae licet et admirabilis fceminae decfcs-
tur. Ergo quia delexit augustae me- sionem consolabiliorem habendam ? prap-

moriae Theodosius Dominum Deum sertim cum perpetuum prostrata ac


ilia in

suum, meruit sanctorum consortia. Id. diruta sint ; haec autem ad tempus quidem
ibid. erepta nobis meliorem illic vitam exigat.
81
Manet ergo in lumine Theodosius, Itaque non tarn deplorandam, quam pro-
et sanctorum coetibus gloriatur. Ibid. sequendam orationibus reor; nee mcesti-
22
Tibi nunc, omnipotens Deus, in- ficandam lacrymis tuis, sed magis obla-
noxiam commendo animam, tibi hostiam tionibus animam ejus Domino commen-
meam offero :
cape propitius ac serenus
dandam arbitror. Id. Epist. viu.
174 . ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

so much land exposed under one view, admonish thee, that


the departure of one woman, although a
holy and an admi-
rable one, should be borne with great consolation ? especially

seeing they are cast down and overthrown for ever ; but she,
being taken from us but for a time, doth pass a better life
there. think that she is not so much to be
I therefore
lamented as to be followed with prayers, and am of the
mind that she is not to be made sad with thy tears, but
rather that her soul should be commended with oblations
unto the Lord." Thus far St Ambrose. Unto whom we
may adjoin Gregory Nazianzen also who, in the funeral
;

oration that he made upon his brother Caesarius, having


acknowledged that he had " 25
received those honours that
did befit a new-created soul, which the Spirit had reformed
by water," (for he had been but lately baptized before his
26
departure out of this life), doth notwithstanding pray that
the Lord would be pleased to receive him.
Divers instances of the like in the ages following
practice
I have produced in another 27 place ; to which I will add some
may from thence observe,
few more, to the end that the reader
how long the primitive institution of the Church did hold
up head among the tares that grew up with it, and in the
end did quite choke and extinguish it. Our English Saxons
had learned of Gregory to pray for relief of those souls
that were supposed to suffer pain in purgatory and yet ;

the introducing of tljat novelty was not able to justle out


the ancient usage of making prayers and oblations for them
which were not doubted to have been at rest in God's king-
dom. And therefore the brethren of the church of Hex-
ham, in the anniversary commemoration of the obit of
" 28 to
Oswald, King of Northumberland, used keep their
vigils for the health of his soul;" and having spent the
in of God with u to offer for him
night praising psalms,
in,
the morning the sacrifice of the sacred oblation," as Bede
writeth; who telleth us yet withal, that
29
he " reigned with

28
5
T^s veoKTLorTOv \|/'y^?/s, f\v
TO Trvevfia Vigilias pro salute animse ejus facere,
uoaTos dvfuopdxatrfv, aia TU yepa plurimaque psalmorum laude celebrata,
Kctp7roi''/tei/os. Greg. Nazianz. in Fun. victimam pro eo mane sacrae oblationis
Caesarii, Orat. x. offerre. Bed. Histor. Ecclesiast. lib. iii.

86 NCy fiev oe~%oio Kaiera/cuoj/. cap. 2.


*7
Discourse of the Religion professed 29
Id. ibid. cap. 12 et 14.
bv the Ancient Irish.
VII.] OF PRAYER FOB THE DEAD. 175

God in heaven," and by his prayers procured many miracles

to be wrought on earth. So likewise doth the same Bede


30
report, that when it was discovered,
by two several visions,
that Hilda, the Abbess of Streamsheale, or Whitby in York-
shire, was carried up by the angels into heaven, they which
heard thereof presently caused prayers to be said for her
soul. And Osberne relateth the like of Dunstan, that being
31
at Bath, and beholding in such another vision the soul of
one that had been his scholar at Glastonbury to be carried
" the "
up into palace of heaven," he straightway commended
the same into the hands of the divine piety," and entreated
the lords of the place where he was to do so likewise.
Other narrations of the samB kind may be found among
them that have written of saints'* lives; and particularly in

the tome published by Mosander, p. 69, touching the decease


of Bathildis, Queen of France, and p. 25, concerning the
departure of Godfry, Earl of Cappenberg, who is said there
to have appeared unto a certain abbess, called Gerbergis,
"
and to have acquainted her, " 2 that he was now, without
all
delay and without all danger of any more severe trial,
gone unto the palace of the highest King; and, as the son
of the immortal King, was clothed with blessed immortality."
33
And the monk that writ the legend addeth, that she
" caused the sacrifice of the Mass to
presently thereupon
be offered for him." Which how fabulous soever it may
be for the matter of the vision, yet doth it strongly prove

*> Id. Histor. lib. iv. cap. 23. apud Surium legitur, est desumpta) ita
81
Repente ad superna raptus cujusdam tantummodo referri : Qui pro tanta gloria
discipuli, nobiliter a se apud Glastoniam fratris ultra quam dici queat exultans, et

educati, animam innumera angelorum fre- immensas corde Deo cunctipotenti


et ore

quentia hinc inde stipatam, atque immensi gratias agens, sociis quid acciderit mani-
luminis fulgore perfusam, ad coeli palatium festa voce exposuit, et diem ac horam

provehi conspexit. Moxque in manus di- transitus ejus notari praecepit.


Noveris, ait, me modo sine ulla dila-
32
vinae pietatis earn commendans, dominos
quoque ad commendandum invitat.
loci tione, aut ullo severioris examinis peri-
Osbernus, in Vita Sti. Dunstani MS. in culo, ad summi Regis palatium commi-
Biblioth. Cottoniana et Bodleiana. No- grasse, atque tanquam Regis immortalis
tandum vero, in Jo. Capgravii
Legenda filium beata immortalitate vestitum. Vit.
(in qua prior narrationis hujus pars ad Godefrid. cap. 13, a Jac. Mosandro, edit.
verbum ex Osberno, ut alia de Dunstano Colon, ann. lolll.
complura, descripta cernitur ) posteriorem
33 Mox fratribus Cappenbergensibus
hanc sententiam omitti penitus in Ead- ;_
indicavit beati viri obitum, et pro eo
mero vero (ex quo, non autem e,r Osberno Missa? sacrificium offerendum curavit.
vel Osbcrto, Vita Dunstani, qnce Maii 19 Ibid.
176 ANSWER TO A JKSUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

that within these 500 years, (for no longer since it is that


this is accounted to have been done,) the use of offering for
the souls of those that were believed to be in heaven was
still retained Church.
in The letters of Charles the
the
Great unto Offa, King of Mercia, are yet extant ; wherein
he ^wisheth, that " intercession" should be made " for the
1
soul of Pope Adrian then lately deceased " not :
having
doubt at saith he,
" that his blessed soul is at
any all,"
rest; but that we may shew faithfulness and love unto our
most dear friend. Even as St Augustine also giveth direc-
tion, that intercessions ought to be made for all men of
ecclesiastical piety ; affirming* that to intercede for a good
man doth profit him that doeth it." Where the two ends
of this kind of intercession are to be observed: the one, to
shew their love to their friend; the other, to get profit to
themselves thereby, rather than to the party deceased. Lastly,
Pope Innocent the Third, or the Second rather, being inquired
of by the Bishop of Cremona concerning the state of a cer-
him out of
tain priest that died without baptism, resolveth
St Augustine and St Ambrose, that " ^because he conti-
nued in the faith of the holy mother the Church, and the
confession of the name of Christ, he was assoiled from origi-
nal sin, and had attained the joy of the heavenly country."

Upon which ground at last he maketh this conclusion :

"
^Ceasfag therefore all questions, hold the sentences of the
learned Fathers; and command continual prayers and sacri-
fices to be offered unto God in thy church for the foresaid
priest."
Now, having thus declared, unto what kind of persons
the commemorations ordained by the ancient Church did
34 35
Deprecantes ut diligenter jubeatis in- Quia in sanctse matris ecclesiae fide et
tercedere pro anima illius ; nullam haben- Christi nominis confessione perseveravit,
tes dubitationem beatam illius animara in ab originali peccato solutum, et ccelestis

requie esse ; sed ut fidem et dilectionem patriae gaudium esse adeptum, asserimus
ostendamus in amicum nobis carissimum, incunctanter. Decretal, lib. iii. tit. 43 de
sicut et beatus praecipit Augustinus pro presbytero non baptizato, cap. 2, Aposto-
omnibus ecclesiasticae pietatis intercessio- licam ; et Collect, i. Bernardi Papiensis,
nes fieri debere ; asserens pro bono inter- lib. v. tit. 35, cap. 2.

cedere facienti proficere. Carol. Magn. 36 doc-


Sopitis igitur quaestionibus,
Epist. ad Offam, inter Epistolas Alcuini torum patrum sententias teneas ; et in
MS. in Bibliotheca Cottoniana. Vide ecclesia tua juges preces hostiasque Deo
Gulielm. Malmsburiens. de Gest. Reg. offerri jubeas pro presbytero memorato.
Anglor. lib. i. cap. 4, et Matth. West- Ibid.
monaster. ann. Dom. 797-
VII.] OF I'll AY KK FOIt I UK DKA1). 1
^f

extend, the next tiling that cometh to consideration is,

what we are conceive of the primary intention of those


to

prayers that were appointed to be made therein. And here


we are to understand, that first prayers of praise and thanks-
giving were presented unto God for the blessed estate that
the party deceased was now entered upon ; whereunto were
afterwards added prayers of deprecation and petition, that
God would be pleased to forgive him his sins, to keep him
from hell, and to place him in the kingdom of heaven.
Which kind of intercessions, howsoever at first
they were
well meant, as we shall hear, yet in process of time they
proved an occasion of confirming men in divers errors ;
especially when they began once to be applied not only to
the good, but to evil livers also, unto whom by the first

institution they never were intended.


The term of ev-^apiaTtjpio^ et^iy, a thanksgiving prayer,
I borrow from the writer of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy;
who, in the description of the funeral observances used of
old in the Church, informeth us, first, that the friends of
the dead " 37 accounted him to be, as he was, blessed,
because that, according to his wish, he had obtained a vic-
torious end ;" and thereupon " sent forth hymns of thanks-

giving to the Author of that victory ; desiring withal that


they themselves might come unto the like end." And then
that ^the Bishop likewise offered up a prayer of thanks-
39
giving unto God, when the dead was afterward brought
unto him, to receive, as it were, at his hands a sacred corona-
tion. Thus at the funeral of Fabiola, the praising of God by
40
singing of Psalms and resounding of Hallelujah is
specially
mentioned by St Jerome and the general practice and inten-
;

tion of the Church therein is expressed and earnestly urged


" 41 Do not we
by St Chrysostom in this manner: praise

37 40 Sonabant
AVTOJ/ T6 0<TTiS fvel Olo?) fffTl, fLCL- psalmi, et aurata tecta
l, TTpOS TO VlK^OpOV CVKTaiWS templorum reboans in sublime quatiebat
O9, Kai T> TJJS VIKJJS airlca Alleluja. Hieron. in Epitaphio Fabiola,

Epist. xxx.
41
d<pLKe<r6ai Trpos Tt}v ofioiav Ouxt TOI/ Qet>v Sofca^Ofiev, KCLI ev-%a-

ev^ofJLevoi Xfj^tv. Dionys. Ecclesiastic. pt<TTOv/j.ev, on Xonrov e<TT<t>dv(a<re -roV


Hierarch. cap. 7. ct7re\6oi/Ta, OTI TUSV TTOVIOV ainjXXa^ei/,
38
Elrct TeXel TTJI; TT/OOS Qeov evyapifm]- oTi T//S oeiXtas 6Kf3a\iov, e%ft Trap' tawrta ;
piov evxnv b iepdpxns- Ibid. OU Sid TOVTO VfJLVOl J OU ^tO TOVTO \f/a\-
39 TctvTa Trdvra \aip^in-ti3V taT/f.
A.a/3oi/T? oe CLVTOV, eiri TOV iepdp\t]v fitpdiai
;

ayova(y,a59 firi o-TetfidvoovicpwvSoiriv. Ib. Chrysost. in Epist. ad Hebr. Homil. iv.


M
178 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [cHAP.

God and give thanks unto him, for that he hath now crowned
him that is
departed, for that he hath freed him from his
labours, for that quitting him from fear, he keepeth him
with himself? Are not the hymns for this end? Is not
the singing of psalms for this purpose ? All these be tokens
of rejoicing." Whereupon he thus presseth them that used
immoderate mourning for the dead: " 42 Thou sayest, Return,
O my soul, unto thy rest, for the Lord hath dealt bounti-
fully with thee ; and dost thou weep ? is not this a stage-
play ? is it not mere simulation ? For if thou dost indeed
believe the things that thou sayest, thou lamentest idly;
but if thou playest, and dissemblest, and thinkest these
things to be fables, why dost thou then sing? why dost
thou suffer those things that are done? Wherefore dost
thou not drive away them that sing?
1'
And in the end he
concludeth somewhat prophetically, that he " 43 very much
feared by this means some grievous disease should
lest

creep in upon the Church."


Whether the doctrine now maintained in the Church
of Rome, that the children of God, presently after their

departure out of this life, are cast into a lake that burneth
with fire and brimstone, be not a spice of this disease, and
whether their practice in chanting of psalms, appointed
for the expression of joy and thankfulness, over them whom

they esteem to be tormented in so lamentable a fashion, be


not a part of that scene and pageant at which St Chrysos-
tom doth so take on, I leave it unto others to judge. That
his fear was not altogether vain, the event itself doth shew.
For howsoever in his days the fire of the Romish purga-

tory was not yet kindled, yet were there certain sticks then
a-gathering, which ministered fuel afterwards unto that flame.
Good St Augustine, who then was alive, and lived three
and twenty years after St ChrysostonVs death, declared
himself to be of this mind; that the "oblations and alms

l
JLOV t L* rn v
'
fjitj
a-rreXaui/ets Toi/s *lrd\\owras ;
Id.

dvaTravcriv <rov, OTL Kupios evrjpyeTt]<re ibid.

<re,Xeyei9, /cat 5a/c/oueis; ovyl o"/crji/jj ravTa 43


Kal yap /zetoi/ft>s SeSotKa, /mtj
TOVTM
COTW ; oix VTroKpuTi? ;
el fj.ev yap OJ/TCOS T> TpoTTia xaXeTn; TIS voaoi ev Trj e/c/cXtj-

tria e7rc-t<re?X0j;. Ibid.


-TTio-rewets ols Xeyeis, irepiTTtia'i Trei/6els.
ei 8e Trcu^eie KCLI inroKpivy KOLL /uu6ous
44
Cum sacrificia sive altaris sive qua-
aura elvai vo^i^eis, TI KOI \!/d\\eis ; T'L rumcunque eleemosynarum pro baptizatis
K-ai avc'x?; TWV Trapa'yivofj.cvwv ;
aid T'I defunctis omnibus ofteruntur, pro valde
VII.]
OK 1'KAYEIl FOR TIIK Dl.Al). 1^9

usually offered in the Church " for all the dead that mvivul
baptism, were thanksgivings for such as were very good,
propitiations for such as were not very bad but as for such ;

as were very evil, although they were no helps of the dead, yet
were they some kind of consolations of the living." Which,
although it were but a private exposition of the Church's
meaning in her prayers and oblations for the dead, and the

opinion of a doctor too that did not hold purgatory to be


any article of his creed, yet did the Romanists in times
following greedily take hold thereof, and make it the main
foundation upon which they laid the hay and stubble of
their devised purgatory.
A private exposition I call this ; not only because it is
not to be found in the writings of the former Fathers, but
also because it suiteth not well with the general practice of
the Church which it intendeth to interpret. It may indeed
fit some sort that part of the Church service, wherein
in
there was made a several commemoration, first, of the

patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, after one man-


ner; and then of the other dead, after another; which,
" 45 an
together with the conceit, that injury was offered
to a martyr by praying for him," was it that first occasioned
46
St
Augustine to think of the former distinction. But
" 47
the
in supplications for the spirits of the dead, which
the Church, under a general commemoration, was accus-
tomed to make for all that were deceased in the Christian
and Catholic Communion" to imagine that one and the
same act of praying should be a petition for some, and for
others a thanksgiving only, is somewhat too harsh an inter-

pretation especially where we find it propounded by way


:

of petition, and the intention thereof


directly expressed, as
in the Greek Liturgy attributed to St James, the brother
of our Lord: " 48 Be mindful, O Lord God of the
spirits

bonis gratiarum actiones sunt, pro non 47 Non sunt praetermittenda; supplica-
valde mails propitiationes sunt, pro valde tiones pro spiritibus mortuorum, quas
mails etsi nulla sunt adjumenta mortuo- faciendas pro omnibus in Christiana et
rum, qualescunque vivorum consolationes Catholica societate defunctis, etiam tacitis
sunt. Augustin. Enchirid. ad Laurent. nominibus quorumque, sub generali com-
cap. 110. memoratione suscepit ecclesia. Id. de
45
Augustin.de Verbis Apostoli, Serm. Cura pro Mortuis, cap. 4
48
XVII. Mj//<r0jTi, Kvpie b Rfos TWV Trvevfid-
46
Id. ibid, et in Evang. Johan. Tractat. Ttav Kai TTCCO-JJS <Tnp/cos, wv
\\XIV. , Kal iav OVK t/iv/<r0;/Liei/, opQooo^aw, d-no
M2
180 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

and of all flesh, of such as we have remembered, and such

as we have not remembered, being of right belief, from


Abel the just until this present day. Do thou cause them
to rest in the land of the living, in thy kingdom, in the
delight of Paradise, in the bosoms of Abraham, and Isaac,
and Jacob, our holy fathers ; whence grief, and sorrow,
and sighing are fled ; where the light of thy countenance
doth them, and shine for ever."
visit And in the offices
Alcuinus: " 49 O
compiled by Lord, holy Father, almighty
and everlasting God, we humbly make request unto thee
for the spirits of thy servants and handmaids, which from
the beginning of this world thou hast called unto thee;
that thou wouldst vouchsafe, O Lord, to give unto them
a lightsome place, a place of refreshing and ease, and that

they pass by the gates of hell and


may the ways of dark-
ness, and may abide in the mansions of the saints, and in
the holy light which thou didst promise of old unto Abra-
ham and his seed.
So the "commemoration of the faithful departed," retained
as yet in the Roman Missal, is begun with this orison :
" Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and
50
let ever-

lasting light shine unto them." Whereunto we may add


these two prayers, to omit a great number more of the like
" 51 O
kind, used of old in the same Church Receive, holy :

Trinity, this oblation, which we


unto thee for all that offer
are departed in the confession of thy name ; that thou reach-

ing unto them the right hand of thy help, they may have

je TOV tKaov pey/pi Ts <rtj/u.e/ooi/ t;/ie- que in mansionibus sanctorum, et in luce


/oas. auTOS e/cel auTous dvdirava-ov ev X"'/ ? sancta quam olim Abrahae promisisti et
%<avT<i)V, ev Trj /SacriXeia trov, ev Trj Tpv(j>fj semini ejus. Alcuin. Offic. per Ferias,
TOV Tra/oadetaou, ev TOIS /coA/mois 'A/3/oaa/u. col. 228, Oper. edit. Paris, arm. 1617.
Kal 'lo-aa/c Kal 'IaKco/3, TCOV dyitav iraTe- 50
Requiem aetemam dona eis, Domine,
ptav rifjiiav'
bQev aTreSpa oSvvrj, XUTTTJ Kal et lux perpetua luceat eis. Introitus Mis-
tTTevayfio's, evOa eirKr/coTrel TO <aJ TOV sae, in commemoratione omnium fidelium
Trpoa-tairov <rov, Kal /caTctXa^tTrei did irav- defunctorum. Agenda mortuorum, in
TO'S. Jacob. Liturg. Antiphonario Gregorii, circa finem.
49 61
Te, Domine, sancte Pater, omnipotens Suscipe, sancta Trinitas, hanc obla-
aeterne Deus, supplices deprecamur pro tionem, quam tibi offerimus pro omnibus
spiritibus famulorum et famularum tua- in tui nominis confessione defunctis; ut

rum, quos ab origine seculi hujus ad te te dexteram auxilii tui porrigente, vitae
accersiri praecepisti ; ut digneris, Domine, perennis requiem habeant ; et a poenis im-
dare eis locum lucidum, locum refrigerii piorum segregati, semper in tuaa laudis
et quietis, et ut liceat eis transire portas laetitia perseverent. Missa Latina Anti-
infernorum et vias tenebrarum, maneant- qua, edit. Argentin. ann. 1557, p. 52.
VII.]
OF PRAY Kit FOR THE DEAD. 181

the of everlasting life; and being separated from the


rest

punishments of the wicked, they may always persevere in the


" 52 This oblation, which we
joy of thy praise/' And, humbly
offer unto thee for the commemoration of the souls that

sleep in peace, we beseech thee, O


Lord, receive graciously ;

and of thy goodness grant, that both the affection of this


pietymay profit us, and obtain for them everlasting bliss."
Where you may " ever-
observe, that the souls unto which
lasting bliss" was wished for, were yet acknowledged to rest
" in
peace," and, consequently, not to be disquieted with
any purgatory torment. Even as in the Canon of the Mass
itself the priest in the commemoration for the dead prayeth
" K
thus: Remember, O Lord, thy servants and handmaids,
which have gone before us with the ensign of faith, and
sleep in the sleep of peace. To them, Lord, and to all O
that are at rest in Christ, we beseech thee that thou wouldst

grant a place of refreshing, light, and peace."


Nay, the Armenians, in their Liturgy, entreat God to
" " unto
^give eternal peace," not only in general all that
have gone before us in the but also in par-
faith of Christ ;"
ticular to the " patriarchs, apostles, prophets, and martyrs."
Which maketh directly for the opinion of those, against
whom ^Nicolaus Cabasilas doth dispute, who held, that these

52
Hanc igitur oblationem, quam tibi Et in
('Ei/Tav0a dva<pepi TOWS Jaii/ras.)
pro commemoratione animarum in pace vetustissimisquibusdam Romanis Missa-
dormientium suppliciter immolamus, quae- libus manuscriptis haec mortuorum com-
sumus, Domine, benignus accipias ; et tua memorationis formula nusquam exstat;
pietate concedas, ut et nobis proficiat hujus P. Vireto teste lib. v. de Adulterat. Ccen.
pietatis affectus, et illis impetret beatitu- Dom. et Missae Myster. cap. xLviii. Ac
dinem sempiternam. Offic. Gregorian. nominatim in vetustissimo Canone Gre-
Tom. v. Oper. Gregor. edit. Paris, ami. goriano, qui in Tigurinae Abbatiee Bi-
1605, col. 235, 236; Tom. 11.
Liturg. bliotheca habebatur, ex authentico libro

Pamelii, p. 610; et Praefation. Vetust. Bibliothecae cubiculi descriptus ; apud


edit.Colon, ann. 1530, num. 111. Henric. Bullinger. lib. ii. de Origine
53
Memento etiam, Domine, famulorum Erroris, cap. 8.
64
famularumque tuarum, qui nos praecesse- Per hanc etiam oblationem da aeter-
runt cum signo fidei, et dormiunt in som- nam pacem omnibus qui nos praecesserunt
no pacis. Ipsis, Domine, et omnibus in in fide Christi, sanctis patribus, patriarch-
Christo quiescentibus, locum refrigerii, is, apostolis, prophetis, martyribus, &c.
lucis et pacis, ut indulgeas deprecamur. Liturg. Armen. edit. Cracoviaa, Andrea
Canon. Missae, in Officio Ambrosiano et Lubelczyck interp.
Gregoriano, et Missali Romano. In 55
'AA./Y evravQa Tti/es OVK
tpraTij'thjo-ai/,
Graeca tamen Liturgia B. Petro attributa, ev^aptffTiav u\\' 'inealav TWV
i/trep dyiiav
pro Commemoratione defunctorum posita 1T/OOS TOV BtOl/ T1)V fJLV}'\fJ^\l> CtVTWV ClVCtl VO-
bic cernitur Commemoratione vivcniittm. /ui<roi/Tty. Cabasil.Exposit.Liturg. cap.4'J,
182 ANSWER TO A JESUlT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

" commemorations" contained " a


supplication for the saints
and not a " thanksgiving" only. As also do
11
unto God,
those forms of prayer which were used in the Roman Liturgy
in the days of Pope Innocent the Third: " 5G Let such an
oblation profit such or such a saint unto glory." And
especially that for St Leo, which is found in the elder
of the Gregorian Sacramentary " 57 Grant unto
copies :
us,
O Lord, that this oblation may profit the soul of thy ser-
vant Leo." For which the latter books have chopped in
this prayer: " Grant unto us, O Lord, that by the inter-
58

cession of thy servant Leo this oblation may profit us."

Concerning which alteration, when the Archbishop of Lyons


propounded such another question unto Pope Innocent as
our Challenger at the beginning did unto us, " 59 Who it
was that did change it, or when it was changed, or why ?"
" 60 that who did
the Pope returneth him for answer, change
it, or when it was changed, he was ignorant of; yet he knew

upon what occasion it was changed because, that where :

the authority of the holy Scripture doth say, that he doth

injury unto a martyr who prayeth for a martyr," which is


a new text of holy Scripture, of the Pope's own canoniza-
" the same reason to be held of other
tion, by the like is

saints." The gloss upon down the rea-


this decretal layeth
son of this mutation a more roundly " 61 Of old they
little :

prayed for him, now at this day he prayeth for us; and % so
was the change made." And 62 Alphonsus Mendoza telleth
"
us, that the old prayer was deservedly" disused, and this

56
Prosit vel proficiat huic sancto vel nent, &c. Innocent, in. in Collect, in.
illi tails oblatioad gloriam. Innocent. Decretal. Petri Beneventani, lib. iii. tit. 33,
in. Epist. ad Archiep. Lugdun. lib. iii. cap. 5.
60
Decretal, tit. 41, de Celebrat. Missar. Super quo tibi taliter respondents,
cap. 6. Cum Marthas. quod quis illud mutaverit, aut quando
57 Annue nobis, Domine, ut animse mutatum fuerit, ignoramus; scimus ta-
famuli tui Leonis haec prosit oblatio. men qua fuerit occasione mutatum, quia
Gregor. Oper. Tom. v. edit. Paris, ann. cum sacrae scripturae dicat auctoritas, quod
1605, col. 135, d. injuriam facit martyri qui orat pro mar-
tyre, idem est ratione consimili de sanctis
58
Annue nobis, Domine, ut interces-
sione famuli tui Leonis base nobis prosit aliis sciendum. Ibid.
61
oblatio. Liturg. Pamelii, Tom. n. Olim orabatur pro ipso, hodie ipse
p. 314.
orat pro nobis ; et ita mutatum est. Cap.
59
Tertio loco tua fraternitas requirit, Cum Martha, Extra, de Celebr. Missar.

quis mutaverit, vel quando fuit mutatum in CJlossa.


62
aut quare, quod in secreta beati Leonis, Alphons. Mendoz.Controvers. Theo-
secundum quod antiqniores codices conti- log, Quaest. vi. Scholastic, num. 7-
VII.]
OF I'KAVKl! I-OH THK DKAD.

other substituted in the room thereof,


" Grant unto
us, \vc
beseech thee, O Lord, that by the intercession of thy servant
Leo this oblation may profit us." Which prayer, inckvd,
was be found heretofore in modernioribus sacramentariis,
to
as Pope Innocent speaketh, and in the Roman Missals that
were published before the Council of Trent, as namely in
that which was printed at Paris ann. 1529; but in the new
reformed Missal, wherewith, it seemeth, Mendoza was not
so well acquainted as with his scholastical controversies, it is

put out again, and another prayer for Leo put in ; that by
the celebration of those " offices of atonement a blessed
63

might accompany him/'


retribution Neither is there any
more wrong done unto St Leo in praying for him after

this manner, than unto all the rest of his fellows in that
other prayer of the Roman Liturgy:
" have received, 64
We
O Lord, the divine mysteries; which as they do profit thy
saints unto glory, so we do beseech thee that they may

profit us
forour healing :" and nothing so much as is done
unto the faithful deceased, when in their Masses for the
all

dead they say daily, " Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,
65

deliver the souls of all the faithful that are departed from
the pains of hell and from the deep lake; deliver
them
from the mouth of the lion, that hell do not swallow them
up, that they fall not into darkness.*" So that, whatsoever
commodious expositions our adversaries can bring for the
justifying of the
Roman service, the same may we make
use of to shew, that the ancient Church might pray for
the dead, and yet in so doing have no relation at all unto

purgatory ; yea, and pray for the martyrs and other saints
that were in the state of bliss, without offering unto them

any injury thereby.


For the clearing of the meaning of those prayers which
are made for Leo and the other saints, to the two expositions

63 Ut Sanct. Annotat. 47, ex Gregorii Sacra-


per haec piae placationis officia, et
ilium beata retributio comitetur, et nobis mentario.

gratiaj tuae dona conciliet. Missal. Roman, 65 Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae,
ex Decreto Concil. Tridentin. restitut. in libera animas omnium fidelium defuncto-
Festo Sti Leonis. j
rum de pocnis infemi et de profundo
64 lacu libera eas de ore leonis, ne absor-
Sumpsimus, Domine, divinamysteria; j
;

quae sicut sanctis tuis prosunt ad gloriam, beat eas Tartarus, ne cadant in obscurum.
Missa in Commcinorat. omnium fidelium
ita nobis, quaesumus, proticiant ad mede-
lani. Bellarmin. de Purgator. lib. ii. !
dcfunctorum, ct in Missis quotidianis de-
up. 1!5; Sixt. Scncns. lib. vi. Riblioth. timctorum in Offer twrio.
j
181 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [cHAP.

brought in by Pope Innocent Cardinal Bellarmine addeth


this for a " 66 that therein the of
third, peradventure glory
the body is petitioned for, which they shall have in the day
of the resurrection. For although," saith he, " they shall
certainly obtain that glory, and it be due unto their merits;
yet not absurd to desire and ask this for them, that by
it is

more means it
may be due unto them." Where, laying
aside those unsavoury terms of debt and merits, whereof we
shall have occasion to treat in their proper place, the answer
is otherwise true in part, but not full enough to give satis-
faction unto that which was objected. For the primary
intention of the Church indeed, in her prayers for the dead,
had reference unto the day of the resurrection; which also
in divers places we find to have been expressly prayed for.
As in the Egyptian Liturgy, attributed unto St Cyril,
" 67 Raise
Bishop of Alexandria: up their bodies in the
day which thou hast appointed, according to thy promises
which are true and cannot lie; grant unto them, according
to thy promises, that which eye hath not seen, and ear hath
not heard, and which hath not ascended into the heart of
man, which thou hast prepared, O Lord, for them that love
thy holy name; that thy servants may not remain in death,
but may get out from thence, although slothfulness and
negligence have followed them." And in that which is
used by the Christians of St Thomas, as they are commonly
" 68 Let the
called, in the East Indies Holy Ghost give resur-
:

rection to your dead at the last day, and make them worthy
of the incorruptible kingdom." Such is the prayer of St
Ambrose for Gratian and Valentinian the emperors: " 69 I do
66
Adde tertio, fortasse peti gloriam cor- sed ut inde emigrant, etiamsi persecuta sit

poris, quam habebunt in die resurrectionis. eos pigritia ant negligentia, &c. Cyrill.
Nam etiamsi gloriam illam certo conse- Liturg. a Victorio Scialach ex Arabico
quentur, et debetur eorum meritis ;
tamen convers. p. 62.
68
non est absurdum hoc illis desiderare et Resurrectionem faciat defunctis ves-
petere, ut pluribus modis debeatur. Bel- tris die novissimo, et dignos faciat
in

larmin. de Purgator. lib. ii. cap. 18. regno incorruptibili Spiritus Sanctus.
illos
67 Resuscita
corpora eorum in die quern Missa Angamallensis, ex Syriaco convers.
in Itinerar. Alexii Menesis.
constituisti, secundum promissiones tuas
69 Te summe Deus, ut carissi-
veras et mendacii expertes : concede eis, quaeso,
secundum promissa quod non vidit
tua, id
mos juvenes matura resurrectione suscites
et resuscites. ut immaturum hunc vitae
oculus, et auris non audivit, et quod in |

cor hominis non ascendit, quod prasparasti, istius cursum matura resurrectione com-
Domine, amatoribus nominis tui sancti ; penses. Ambros. de Obit. Valentiniani,
ut famuli tui non permaneant in morte, in ipso fine.
OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD. 1H5

beseech thee, most high God, that thou wouldst raise up


again those dear young men with a speedy resurrec-
tion, that thou mayest recompense this untimely course of
this present life with a timely resurrection." And that
in Alcuinus :
" 70
Let their souls sustain no hurt; but when
that great day of the resurrection and remuneration shall
come, vouchsafe to raise them up, O Lord, together with
thy and thine
saints elect." And that in Grimoldus's Sa-
" 71 and
cramentary Almighty :
everlasting God, vouchsafe to
place the body and the soul and the spirit of thy servant
N. in the bosoms of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that, when
the day of thy acknowledgment shall come, thou mayest
command them to be raised up among thy saints and thine
elect." And that which the Syrians do use: " 2 Cause, '

Lord God, their souls and their spirits and their bodies to
rest ; and sprinkle the dew of mercy upon their bones."
But yet the Cardinal's answer, that the glory of the
body may be prayed for, which the saints shall have at the
day of the resurrection, cometh somewhat short of that
which the Church used to request in the behalf of St Leo:
for in that prayer express mention is made of his soul,
and to it is wished that profit may redound by the present
oblation. And therefore this defect must be supplied out
of his answer unto that other prayer which is made for
the souls of the faithful departed, that they may be deli-
vered out of the mouth of the lion, and that hell may not
swallow them up. To this he that " "the Church
saith,

70 Nullam laesionem sustineant anima?


nusquam comparet, ) corporis tantum men-
eorum ; sed cum magnus ille dies resur- tione omissa ; et Tomo v. Oper. Gregorii,

rectionis ac remunerationis advenerit, re- edit. Paris, aim. 1605, col. 234, corporis
suscitare eos digneris, Domine, una cum simul et spiritus nominibus praetermissis.
72
sanctis et electis tuis.Alcuin. Offic. per vinrwia NH^K xno n*3K IWOTJ
Ferias, Oper. col. 228, Preces Ecclesiast. by Norm Nbxo Dm prvuEn prim-p
a Georg. Cassandro collect, p. 384, Oper. Oral, pro Defunctis, in Syriacae linguae
71
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, collo- primis elementis ab Alb. Widmanstadio
care dignare corpus et an imam et spiritum edit. Vienna?, ann. 1555.
famuli tui JV. in sinibus Abrahas, Isaac, 73
Ecclesia oral pro animabus quas in
et Jacob ; ut cum dies agnitionis tuae ve- purgatorio degunt, ne damnentur ad poenas
nerit, inter sanctos et electos tuos eum Gehennas sempiternas ; non quidem quod
resuscitari prsecipias. Grimold. Sacra- certum non sit eas non damnandas ad
mentar. Tom. u. Liturgic. Pamel. p. 456, eas pocnas, sed quia vult Deus nos orare
4o7- -Habetur eadem oratio in Missali etiam pro iis rebus, quas certo accepturi
Romano nondum reformato, (nam in novo sumus. Bellarmin. dc Purgator. lib. ii.
ex decreto Concilii Tridcntini restitute cap. 5.
186 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

doth pray for these souls, that they may not be condemned
unto the everlasting pains of hell; not as if it were not
certain that they should not be condemned unto those

pains, but because God's pleasure that we should pray


it is

even for those things which we are certainly to receive."


The same answer did Alphonsus de Castro give before him,
that " 74 very often those things are prayed for which are

certainly known shall come to pass as they are


prayed for ;
and that of this there be very many 75 testimonies." And
Johannes Medina, that " 76 God delighteth to be prayed
unto even for those things which otherwise he purposed
to do. For God had decreed," saith he, " after the sin
of Adam to take our flesh, and he decreed the time wherein
he meant to come; and yet the prayers of the saints, that
prayed for his incarnation and for his coming, were accept-
able unto him. God hath also decreed to grant pardon
unto every repentant sinner; and yet the prayer is grateful
Unto him, wherein either the penitent doth pray for himself,
or another for him, that God would be pleased to accept
his repentance. God hath decreed also and promised not
to forsake his Church, and to be present with councils law-
fully assembled; yet the prayer notwithstanding is grateful
unto God, and the hymns, whereby his presence and favour
and grace is implored both for the council and the Church."
And whereas it
might be objected, that howsoever the Church
may sometimes pray for those things which she shall certainly

receive, yet she doth not pray for those things which she
hath already received; and this she hath received, that those
souls shall not be damned, seeing they have received their

74
Saepissime petuntur ilia quse certo sumere, decrevitque tempus quo venturus
sciuntur eventura ut petuntur; et hujus erat ; et gratae illi fuerunt orationes sanc-
rei plurima sunt testimonia. Alphons. torum pro sua incarnatione et adventu
Castr. contr. Haeres. lib. xii. de Purgator. orantium. Decrevit etiam Deus omni pec-
Hseres. in. catori pcenitenti veniam dare, et tamen
70 One whereof may be that prayer of grata est ilia oratio qua vel ipse poenitens
the Prophet in the 9th of Daniel, where- pro se, vel alius pro illo orat, ut ejus pceni-
upon St Jerome writeth thus In cinere
: |
tentiam Deus acceptare dignetur. Decre-
et sacco postulat impleri quod promiserat vitetiam Deus, et promisit, ecclesiam suam
j

Deus; non quo incredulus esset futuro- j


nondeserere,etconciliislegitimecongrega-
tis adesse ; et tamen grata est Deo oratio
rum, sed ne securitas negligentiam, et ;

negligentia pareret offensam. et hymni, quibus ejus pra2sentia et favor


j

76 Gaudet Deus orarietiam pro his, I


et gratia ipsi concilio et ecclesiaa implora-
quae alioqui fact urns esset. Decreverat j
tur. Jo. Medin. de Pocnit. Tract, vi.
'

enim Deus post pcccaUim Adas carnem Qmrst. vi. Codicis dc Oratione.
VII.] OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD.

sentence, and are most secure from damnation ; the Cardinal

replieth, that this objection may easily


be avoided: ""For
" have received
although those souls," saith he, already their
first sentence in the
particular judgment, and by that sen-
tence are freed from hell, yet doth there yet remain the

general judgment, which they are to receive the second


in
sentence. Wherefore the Church, praying that those souls
in the last judgment may not fall into darkness, nor be
swallowed up of hell, doth not pray for the thing which
the soul hath, but which it shall receive." Thus these men,

labouring to shew how the prayers for the dead used in their
Church may stand of purgatory, do
with their conceits

thereby inform us how the prayers for the dead used by


the ancient Church may stand well enough without the

supposal of any purgatory at all. For if we may pray for


those things which we are most sure shall come to pass, and
the Church, by the adversary's own confession, did pray

accordingly that the souls of the faithful might escape the


pains of hell at the general judgment, notwithstanding they
had certainly been freed from them already by the sentence
of the particular judgment; by the same reason, when the
Church in times past besought God to " 78 remember all
those that slept in the hope of the resurrection of everlasting
life,"which is the form of prayer used in the Greek Litur-
gies,and to give unto them rest, and to bring them unto the
place where the light of his countenance should shine upon
them for evermore, why should not we think that it desired
these things should be granted unto them by the last sentence
at the day of the resurrection, notwithstanding they were

formerly adjudged unto them by the particular sentence at


the time of their dissolution ?
For as " '"that which shall befall unto all at the day of

judgment is
accomplished in every one at the day of his
death ;" so, on the other side, whatsoever befalleth the soul

77 Nam etsi animaj purgatorii jam ac- orat pro ea re quam accepit, sed pro ea quam
ceperint primam sententiam in judicio acceptura est anima. Bellarmin. ut supra.
78
caque sententia liberae sint a
particular!, Ml/j(70JTt TrdvTtaV TtaV TrpOKKOl[JI.1l-
Gehenna; tamen adhuc superest judicium fjievwv CTT' e\7Ttot avaerracrews ft)?/s ot-

generate, in quo secundam sententiam <oviov. Liturg. Basil, et Chrysost.


acceptura? sunt. Quocirca ecclesia orans
7r)
Quod enim in die judicii f'uturum est

ne in judicio cxtrcmo anim;r illse cadant in omnibus, hoc in singulis die mortis implc-
pbscuruni,neveabsorbcanturaTartaTO,non tur. Hieronym. in Joel. cap. ii.
188 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAI*.

of every one at the


day of his death, the same is fully accom-
plished upon the whole man at the day of the general
judgment. Whereupon we find that the Scriptures every-
where do point out that great day unto us, as the time
wherein mercy and forgiveness, rest and refreshing, joy
and gladness, redemption and salvation, rewards and crowns,
shall be bestowed upon all God^s children. As in 2 Tim.
16, 18, The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesi-
i.

phorus : the Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy
1 Cor. i. 8, Who shall also
of the Lord in that day. confirm
you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Acts iii. 19? Repent ye therefore,
and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when
the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the
Lord. 2 Thess. i. 6, 1, It is a righteous thing with God
to recompense unto you which are troubled rest with us,
when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with
his mighty angels. Philip, ii. 16, That I may rejoice in
the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither
laboured in vain. 1 Thess. ii. 19, For what is our
hope,
or joy, or crown of rejoicing ? are not even ye in the pre-
sence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming ? 1 Pet. i. 5,

Who kept by the power of God through faith unto-


are
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Cor. v. 5,

That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus~
Ephes. iv. 30, Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby
ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Luke xxi. 28,
When these things begin to come to pass, then look up,
and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth
nigh. 2 Tim.iv. 8,
Henceforth there is laid up for me
a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, shall give me at that day; and Luke xiv. 14, Thou
shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
And that the Church, in her offices for the dead, had
special respect unto this time of the resurrection, appeareth
to be read
plainly, both by the portions of Scripture appointed
therein, and by divers particulars in the prayers themselves,

that manifestly discover this intention. For there " 80


the

80 OI \eiTovpyol Tas iv TOIS 0eiots Xo- aSovcri ras 6/ioXoyou9 xai


res, le/oais

ytots e/nffrepo/mevas a^euoels eTrayyeXtas ToSvvcijJ.ou'i TWV //aX^u.iKwi/ Xoyicoi/


wv ai'a<TT<f<riftaf dvnyvov- Dionys. Hierarch. Ecclesiast. cap. J.
vil.] OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD. 189

ministers," as the writer of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy


" read undoubted
reporteth, promises which are
those
recorded in the divine Scriptures of our divine resurrec-
tion, and then devoutly sang such of the sacred Psalms as
were of the same subject and argument.
11
And so accord-
ingly in the Roman Missal, the lessons ordained to be read
for that time are taken from 1 Cor. xv. Behold, I tell you
a mystery ; We shall all rise again, &c. John v. The hour
cometh wherein all that are in the graves shall hear his
voice, and they that \have done good shall come forth unto
the resurrection of life, &c. 1 Thess. iv. Brethren, we
would not have you ignorant concerning them that sleep,
that ye sorrow not, as others which have no hope. John xi.
/ am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in
me, although he were dead, shall live. 2 Macab. xii. Judas
caused a to be offered for the sins of the dead,
sacrifice
justly and religiously thinking of the resurrection. John vi.
This is the will of my Father that sent me, that every one

that seeth the Son and believeth in him may have life
everlasting: and I will raise him up at the last day. And,
He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath life
everlasting:and I will raise him up at the last day. And
Apocal. xiv. / heard a voice from heaven, saying
lastly,
unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord, from henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they
may rest from their labours ; for their works follow them.
Wherewith the sequence also doth agree, beginning,

81
Dies irse, dies ilia,

Solvet seclum in favilla,


Teste David cum Sibylla:
and ending,
Lacrymosa dies ilia,

Qua resurget ex favilla


Judicandus homo reus ;
Huic ergo parce Deus.
Pie Jesu Domine,
Dona eis requiem.

Tertullian, in his book de Monogamia, which he wrote


after he had been infected with the heresy of the Montanists,

81
Missal. Roman, in Commemorat. omnium Fidelium Defunctorum.
190 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

speaking of the prayer of a widow for the soul of her deceased


" 82 she
husband, saith, that requesteth refreshing for him,
and a portion in the first resurrection." Which seemeth
to have some tang of the error of the Millenaries,
(where-
unto not ^ 3 Tertullian only with his 84 Prophet Montanus,
but 85 Nepos also, and 86 Lactantius, and divers other doctors
of the Church did fall), who, misunderstanding the
prophecy
in the 20th of the Revelation, imagined that there should be
a first resurrection of the just, that should reign here a thou-
sand years upon earth ; and after that a second resurrection
of the wicked at the day of the general judgment. " 87
They
that come not to the first resurrection, but are reserved to
the second, shall be burned until they fulfil the times
betwixt the first and the second resurrection or if they ;

have not fulfilled them, they shall remain longer in punish-


ment. And therefore let us pray that we may obtain to
have our part in the first resurrection," saith St Ambrose.
Hence, in a certain Gothic Missal, I meet with two several
exhortations made unto the people to pray after this form :

the that God would " 88 vouchsafe to


one, in the place
bosom of Abraham the souls of those that be at rest, and
admit them unto the part of the first resurrection the ;

other, which I find elsewhere also repeated in particular,


that
89
he would " place in rest the spirits of their friends

82
Enimvero et pro anhna ejus orat, et isti urentur donee impleant tempora inter
refrigerium interim adpostulat ei, et in primam et secundam resurrectionem ; aut

prima resurrectione consortium. Tertull. si non impleverint, diutius in supplicio

de Monogam. cap. 10. permanebunt: ideo ergo rogemus ut in


83
Id. de Resurrect. Carnis, cap. 25. prima resurrectione partem habere merea-
84 mur. Ambros. in Psal. i. 5.
Id. advers. Marcion. lib.iii. cap. ult.
85 88
Sicut Nepos docuit, qui primam jus- Quiescentium animas in sinu Abrahae
torum resurrectionem et secundam im- collocare dignetur, et in partem primac

piorum confinxit. Gennad. de Ecclesiast. resurrectionis admittat. Missal. Gottic.


Dogmat. cap. 55. Idem in Catalogo Scrip- Tom. vi. Bibliothec. Patr. edit. Paris,
tor. Ecclesiastic, de Tichonio Donatista. ann. 1589, col. 251.
Mille annorum regni in terra justorum, 89
Deum judicem universitatis, Deum
post resurrectionem futuri, suspicionem ccelestium et terrestrium et infernorum,
tulit ; neque duas in carne mortuorum re- fratres dilectissimi,
deprecemur pro spiri-
surrectiones futuras, unam justorum, et tibus carorum nostrorum, qui nos in
aliam injustorum, sed unam et semel om- Dominica pace prascesserunt ; ut eos
nium, ostendit. Dominus in requie collocare dignetur, et
86
Lactant. Institut. Divin. lib. vii. in parte primae resurrectionis resuscitet.

cap. 21, 24, et 26. Ibid. col. 257; Gregor. Oper. Tom. v.
87
Qui non veniunt ad primam resur- col. 228, edit. Paris. ; Preces Ecclesiast.

rectionem, sed ad secundam reservantur, a Gregor. Cassandro collect, p. 385, Oper.


VII.]
OF F HAYEK VOK THE DEAD. 191

which were gone before them in the LorcTs peace, and


raise them up in the part of the first resurrection." And,
to come nearer home, Asserius Menevensis, writing of the
death and burial of ^Ethelred, King of the West Saxons,
and Burghred, King of the Mercians, saith, that they
" w
expect the coming of the Lord and the first resurrection
with the just." The like doth Abbo Floriacensis also write
91
of our Cuthbert. Which, how it may be excused other-
92
wise, than by saying that at the general resurrection the
dead in Christ shall rise first, and then the wicked shall
be raised after them, and by referring the first resurrection
unto the ^resurrection of the just, which shall be at that
94
day, I cannot well resolve. For certain it is, that ihejirst
resurrection, spoken of in the 20th chapter of the Revela-
tion of St John, is the resurrection of the soul from the
death of sin and error in this world ; as the second is the
resurrection of the body out of the dust of the earth in the
world to come ; both which be distinctly laid down by our
Saviour in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of St John ; the
first in the 25th verse, The hour iscoming, and now is, when
the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they
that hear shall live , the second in the 28th and 2Qth, Mar-
vel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all that
are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth :
they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and
they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
And to this general resurrection, and to the judgment
of the last day, had the Church relation in her prayers;
some patterns whereof it will not be amiss to exhibit here,
in these examples following: " 95
Although the condition of
1)0
Adventum Domini et primam cum suo ordine resurgat; considerandum est
justis resurrectionem exspectant. Asser. tamen propter ilium sermonem Johannis,
de jElfredi Rebus Gestis, ann. 871 et 874. (Apocal. xx.), ne forte dividi omnis resur-
91
Sanctus Domini Cuthbertus incom- rectionis ratio in duas partes possit, id est,
parabilis confessor et episcopus non solum in eos qui salvandi sunt justos, et in eos
adhuc exspectat diem prima? resurrectio- qui cruciandi sunt peccatores : ut sit una
nis incorrupto corpore ; sed etiam perfusus quidem bonorum, qua: dicitur prima ; ilia

quodam blando tempore. Abbo Floriac. vero quas est miserorum, secunda dicatur.
Praefat. in Vitam S. Eadmundi Regis, ad
Hieronym. in Psal. i. 5. Si non resurgunt
Dunstanum. peccatores in concilio justorum ; diversa
92 93
1 Thess. iv. 6. Luke xiv. 14. est peccatorum justorumque resurrectio.
94 95
Ita Origenes, in Esai. lib. xxviii. Quamvis humano generi mortis illata
citatus in Pamphili pro eo Apologia : conditio pectora nostra mentesque contris-
Licet omnes resurgant, et unusquisque in tet ; tamen dementias tuae dono spe fu-
192 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

death brought in upon mankind doth make our hearts and


minds heavy ; yet, by the gift of thy clemency, we are raised
up with the hope of future immortality ; and being mindful
of eternal salvation, are not afraid to sustain the loss of
this light. For by the benefit of thy grace, life is not
taken away to the faithful, but changed ; and the souls

being freed from the prison of the body, abhor things mortal
when they attain unto things eternal. Wherefore we beseech
thee that thy servant N., being placed in the tabernacles of
the blessed, may rejoice that he hath escaped the straits of
the flesh, and in the desire of glorification expect with con-
fidence the day of judgment." " 96
Through Jesus Christ
our Lord, whose holy passion we celebrate without doubt
for immortal and well resting souls; for them especially

upon whom thou hast bestowed the grace of the second


birth ; who, by the example of the same Jesus Christ our
Lord, have begun to be secure of the resurrection. For
thou, who
hast made the things that were not, art able to

repair the things that were ; and hast given unto us evidences
of the resurrection to come, not only by the doctrine of
the Prophets and Apostles, but also by the resurrection of
the same thy only begotten Son our Redeemer." " 97 O
God,
who art the Creator and Maker of all things, and who art
the bliss of thy saints, grant unto us who make request unto

turae immortalitatis erigimur ; ac memores et bene quiescentibus animabus sine dubio


salutis aetemae, non timemus lucis hujus celebramus ; pro his praecipue, quibus se-
sustinere jacturam, quoniam beneficio gra- cundae nativitatis gratiam praestitisti ; qui
tiae tuae fidelibus vita non tollitur, sed exemplo ejusdem Jesu Christi Domini
mutatur atque animae, corporeo ergastulo
: nostri coeperunt esse de resurrectione se-
liberatae, horrent mortalia dum immorta- non
curi. Quippe qui fecisti quae erant,
liaconsequuntur. Unde quaesumus ut potes reparare quae fuerant; et resurrec-
famulus tuus JV., intabernaculisbeatorum tionis futurae nobis documenta non solum

constitutus, evasisse se carnales glorietur per propheticam et apostolicam doctrinam,


angustias, diemque judicii cum fiducia sed per ejusdem unigeniti tui, Redempto-
voto glorificationis exspectet. Praefat. an- ris nostri, resurrectionem dedisti. Praefat.

tiqu. edit. Colon, ann. 1530, num. 106; antiqu. 107 et 112, Grimold. Sacrament.;
Tom. ii. Liturgic. Pamel. p. 608; et Tom. ii. Liturg. Pamel. p. 460, 461 ; et
Tom. v. Oper. Gregorii, edit. Paris, col. Tom. v. Oper. Gregor. col. 235.
97
233. Habetur et prior Praefat. hujus pars Deus, qui universorum es Creator
in Missa Ambrosiana, Tom. i. Liturg. et Conditor, quique tuorum es beatitudo
Pamel. p. 450, 451 ; posterior in altera sanctorum, praesta nobis petentibus, ut
Praefat. ibid. p. 449, et Oper. Gregor. spiritum fratris nostri, corporis nexibus
col. 232, a. absolutum, in beata resurrectione facias
96
Per Christum Dominum nostrum, praesentari. Prec. Ecclesiast. Cassandr.
cujus sacram passionem pro immortalibus Oper. p. 385 ; Tom. v. Gregor. col. 228, e.
V,,.]
OF PRAY Kit FOR THE DEAD. 193

thee, that the spirit who is loosed from the


of our brother,
knot of his body, may be presented in the blessed resurrec-
tion of thy saints." " 98 O and merciful God, we
almighty
do entreat thy clemency, forasmuch as by thy judgment we
are born and made an end, that thou wilt receive into ever-

lasting rest the soul of our brother, whom thou of thy piety
hast commanded to pass from the dwelling of this world,
and permit him to be associated with the company of thine
elect, that together with them he may remain in everlasting
" "Eternal
bliss without end." God, who in Christ thine
only begotten Son our Lord hast given unto us the hope
of a blessed resurrection ;
grant, we beseech thee, that the
souls for which we offer this sacrifice of our redemption
unto thy Majesty, of thy mercy attain unto the rest
may
of a blessed resurrection with thy saints." " 100 Let this
communion, we beseech thee, O Lord, purge us from sin ;
and give unto the soul of thy servant N. a portion in the

heavenly joy, that, being set apart before the throne of the
glory of thy Christ with those that are upon the right
hand, it may have nothing common with those that are
" 101
upon the left." Through Christ our Lord : at whose
coming, when thou shalt command both the peoples to appear,
command thy servant also to be severed from the number
of the evil and grant unto him that he may both escape
;

the flames of everlasting punishment, and obtain the rewards


of a righteous life," &c. Lastly, Abbot Berengosius, speak-
98
Omnipotens et misericors Deus, tuam pervenire mereantur. Praef. antiqu. 110,
deprecamur clementiam, quia judicio tuo edit. Colon, ann. 1530, Tom. n. Liturg.
et nascimur et finimur, ut animam fratris Pamel. Tom. v. col.
p. 609; Gregor.
nostri, quern tua pietas de incolatu hujus 236, e.

mundi transire praecepit, in requiem aeter- 100 Hasc nos communio, quaesumus,
nam suscipias, et in consortio electorum Domine, purget a crimine ; et animae fa-
tuorum in resurrectione sociari permittas, muli tui N. coelestis gaudii tribuat con-
ut in aeterna beatitudine una cum illis sine
sortium, ut ante thronum gloriae Christi
fine permaneat. Alcuin. Offic. per Ferias, tui segregata cum dextris, nihil commune
Oper. p. 230, 231, collat. cum simili, Tom. habeat cum sinistris. Tom. v. Gregor.
v. Gregor. col. 228, c. d. ; et in Operib. col. 233, c.
Cassandr. p. 385. 101 Per Christum Dominum nostrum :

99
jEterne Deus, qui nobis in Christo in cujus adventu, cum geminam jusseris
unigenito Filio tuo Domino nostro spem sistere plebem, jubeas et famulum tuum a
beatae resurrectionis concessisti; praesta, numero discerni malorum. Quern una
quaesumus, ut animae pro quibus hoc sa- tribuas pcenae aeternas evadere flamrnas, et
crificium redemptionis nostrae tuae offeri- justae potius adipisci praemia vitae, &c.
mus majestati, ad beatae resurrectionis Offic. Ambrosian. Tom. i. ; Liturg. Pa-
requiem, te miserante, cum sanctis tuis mel. p. 4f)0.

N
194 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP;

ing of Constantine the Great, " 102 Forasmuch," saith he r


" as hitherto he hath not the full
perfection of his future
rest, but rather doth hope as yet with us to find a better
resurrection, we are to pray that he who by his blood was
pleased to sanctify the banner of the quickening cross, would
1
hereafter bring unto perfect rest both us and him/
In these and other prayers of the like kind, we may
descry evident footsteps of the primary intention of the
Church her supplications for the dead ; which was, that
in
the whole man, not the soul separated only, might receive

public remission of sins and a solemn acquittal in the judg-


ment of that great day, and so obtain both a full escape from
all the consequences of sin,
m
the last enemy being now

destroyed, and death swallowed up in victory, and a perfect


consummation of and happiness.
bliss All which are com-
in that short prayer of St Paul for Onesiphorus,
prised
104
though made for him while he was alive, The Lord grant
unto him that he may Jind mercy of the Lord in that day.
Yea, divers prayers for the dead of this kind are still retained
in the Roman Offices; of which the great Spanish Doctor,
" 105
Johannes Medina, thus writeth Although I have read
:

many prayers for the faithful deceased which are contained


in the Roman Missal, yet have I read in none of them
that the Church doth petition that they may more quickly
be freed from pains: but I have read that in some of them
petition is made that they may be freed from everlasting
pains.""
For beside the common prayer that is used in the
Mass for the commemoration of all the faithful deceased,
that " Christ would free them from the mouth of the lion,

102
Quoniam ipse futurae quietis plena- remorari, quoniam etsi adhuc praemia ilia
riam nondum habet perfectionem, sed suspensa sunt, quae nee oculus vidit, nee
nobiscum potius meliorem adhuc sperat auris audivit, nee in cor hominis ascendit,
invenire resurrectionem, orandum est no- modo tamen futuri praemii certissima spei
bis ut ipse, qui per sanguinem suum vivi- delectatione pascuntur.
103 1
ficae crucis voluit sanctificare vexillum, Cor. xv. 26, 54.
104 2 Tim.
ad perfectam requiem nos perducat quan- i. 18.
105
doque et ilium. Berengos. de Invent, et Etsi quamplures oration es fidelium
Laude Crucis, lib. ii. cap. 11. Cum quo defunctorum legerim, quae in Missali Ro-
conferendum et illud Cassiodori, in Psal. mano continentur, in nulla tamen earum
xxiv. Quia justis hominibus exutis cor- legi per ecclesiam peti, ut citius a pcenis
pore non statim perfecta beatitude datur, liberentur; legi tamen in nonnullis peti,
quae sanctis in resurrectione promittitur ; ut ab aeternis poenis liberentur. Johan.
animam tanien ejus dicit in bonis posse Medin. in Codice de Oratione, Quaest. VK
VII.]
OF 1'HAYEll FOll THE DEAD.

that hell not swallow them up, and that they may not
may
fall the place of darkness," this prayer is prescribed
into
for the day wherein the dead did depart out of this life :

" 106
O
God, whose property is always to have mercy and
to spare, we most humbly beseech thee for the souf of
servant N. which this day thou hast commanded to
thy
depart out of this world, that thou mayest not deliver it
into the hands of the enemy, nor forget it finally ; but
command it to be received by the holy angels, and brought
unto the country of paradise; that because he hath trusted
and believed in thee, he may not sustain the pains of hell,
11
but possess joys everlasting. Which is a direct prayer,
that the soul of him which was then departed might imme-

diately be received into heaven, and escape,


not the tem-

porary pains of purgatory, but the everlasting pains of hell.


For howsoever the new reformers of the Roman .Missal have
put in here pcenas inferni, under the generality peradven-
ture of the term of the " pains of helP intending to shroud
their purgatory, which they would have men believe to be
one of the lodges of hell; yet in the 107 old Missal which
Medina had respect unto, we read expressly pcenas ceternas,
"
everlasting pains ;" which by no construction can be referred
unto the pains of purgatory. And to the same purpose,
in the book of the ceremonies of the Church of Rome, at the

exequies of a Cardinal, a prayer is appointed to be read,


that by the assistance of God's grace he might
" m
escape
the judgment of everlasting revenge, who, while he lived,
was marked with the seal of the holy Trinity."
" 109
there be other saith Medina,
Again, prayers,"
" wherein God would the soul
petition is made, that raise
of the dead in their bodies unto bliss at the day of judg-
ment." Such, for example, is that which is found in the

106
Deus, cui proprium est misereri sem-
107 Missal. Rom. edit. Paris, aim. 1529.
108
per et parcere, te supplices exoramus pro Gratia tua illi succurrente, merea-
anima famuli tui N. quam hodie de hoc tur judicium evadere ultionis aeternae, qui
seculo migrate jussisti, ut non tradas earn dum viveret insignitus est signaculo sanc-
in manus obliviscaris in tae Trinitatis. Sacr. Ceremoniar. Rom.
inimici, neque
finem ; sed jubeas earn a sanctis angelis Eccles. lib. i. sect. 15, cap. 1, fol. 152, b.

suscipi, et ad patriam paradisi perduci; ut, edit. Colon, ann. 1574.


109 Sunt orationes in quibus peti-
speravit et credidit, non pcenas
aliae
quia in te
inf erni sustineat, sed gaudia jeterna possi- tur, ut Deus animas defunctorum in cor-
deat. Orat. in die obitus sen depositionis poribus ad beatitudinem in die judicii
defuncti, in Missali Romano reformato. suscitet. Jo. Medin. ut supra.
N2
196 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

Roman Missal " no we beseech O


:
Absolve, thee, Lord,
the soul of
thy servant from all the bond of his sins, that
in the
glory of the resurrection being raised among thy
saints and elect, he
may breathe again," or be refreshed.
And that other in the Roman Pontifical: " 1U O God, unto
whom all things do live, and unto whom our bodies in dying
do not perish, but are changed for the better, we
humbly
pray thee that thou wouldst command the soul of thy
servant N. to be received by the hands of
thy holy angels,
to be carried into the bosom of
thy friend the Patriarch
Abraham, and to be raised up at the last day of the great
judgment; and whatsoever faults by the deceit of the devil
he hath incurred, do thou of thy pity and mercy wash
away
by forgiving them." Now, forasmuch as it is most certain
that all such as depart in grace, as the adversaries acknow-

ledge that all in purgatory do, are sure to escape hell, and
to be raised up unto
glory at the last day, Medina per-
plexeth himself exceedingly in according these kind of
prayers with the received grounds of purgatory; and after
much agitation of the business to and fro, at last resolveth
upon one of these two desperate conclusions. That touch-
" 112
ing these prayers which are made in the Church for
110
Absolve, quaesumus, Domine, ani- et misericors abluas indulgendo. Pontific.
mam famuli tui ab omni vinculo delicto- Roman. Clem. viu. jussu edit. Romse,
rum, ut in resurrectionis gloria inter sanc- ann. 1595, p. 685, et Venet. ann. 1572,
tos et electos tuos. resuscitatus respiret. fol. 226, col. 4; lib. i. Sacr. Ceremoniar.

Orat. pro Defunct, in Missali Romano, Rom. Eccles. sect. 15, cap. 1, fol. 153, b.
vetere et novo ; nee non in Gregorii Sacra- edit. Colon.; Tom. v. Oper. Gregorii,
mentario; Tom. n. Liturgic. Pamelii, col. 227, edit. Paris. ; Prec. Ecclesiast. a

p. 386 ; et Tom. v. Oper. Gregor. edit. G. Cassandro edit. p. 384, Operum.


112
Paris, col. 229, 230. Similis etiam ora- Respondetur, quantum ad orationes
tiuncula habetur in Gregorii Antiphona- quae pro defunctis in ecclesia fiunt, posse
rio, p. 175, Pamelii, col. 62, edit. Paris. primo dici, non esse necessarium omnes
Erue, Domine, animas eorum ab omni eas ab omni ineptudine excusare. Multa
vinculo delictorum, ut in resurrectionis enim in ecclesia legi permittuntur, quae
gloria inter sanctos tuos resuscitari me- quamvis non omnino vera sint, vel omnino
reantur. apta, conferunt tamen ad fidelium devo-
111
Deus, cui omnia vivunt, et cui non tionem excitandam et augendam. Talia
pereunt moriendo corpora nostra, sed mu- multa credendum est contineri in historiis
tanturin melius, te supplices deprecamur, non sacris, et in legendis sanctorum, et in
ut soiscipi jubeasanimam famuli tui -ZV. opinionibus doctorum et scripturis; quae
per manus sanctorum angelorum tuorum, omnia tolerantur in ecclesia interim, dum
deducendam in sinu amici tui Abrahae super illis nulla movetur quaestio, nullum-
Patriarchae, resuscitandamque in novissi- que insurgit scandalum. Ac proinde non
mo judicii magni die; et quicquid vitio- mirum in orationibus praedictis aliquid
rum, diabolo fallente, contraxit, tu pius minus aptum contineri, et ab ecclesia tole-
VII.]
OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD.

the dead, it
may first of all be said, that it is not necessary
to excuse them all from all unfitness. For many things
are permitted to be read in the Church, which although
nor altogether fit, yet serve
they be not altogether true,
for the stirring up and increasing the devotion of the faith-
" we believe are con-
ful. Many such things," saith he,
tained in the histories that be not sacred, and in the legends
of the saints, and in the opinions and writings of the doctors ;
all which are tolerated by the Church in the mean time,
while there is no question moved of them, and no scandal
ariseth from them. And therefore it is no marvel, that
somewhat not so fit should be contained in the foresaid
prayers, and be tolerated in the Church, seeing such prayers
were made by private persons, not by Councils, neither
were approved at all by Councils."
And we easily do believe, indeed, that their offices and
legends fraught not only with untrue and unfit, but
are
also with far worse stuff; neither is this any news unto us.

Agobardus, Bishop of Lyons, complained, about 800 years


" 113
ago, that the Antiphonary used in his church had many
ridiculous and phantastical" things in it; that he was fain
114
to cut off from thence such things as seemed to be
" either

superfluous, or light, or lying,or blasphemous." The like


complaint was made not long since by Lindanus of the
Roman Antiphonaries and Missals; 115 wherein "not only
apocryphal tales," saith he, "out of the Gospel of Nico-
demus and other toys are thrust in, but the very secret
prayers themselves are defiled with most foul faults." But
now that we have the " U6 Roman Missal restored according
to the decree of the Council of Trent, set out by the com-
mand of Pius V., and revised again by the authority of

rari, cum tales orationes factae sint a per- 116


Ubi non apocrypha modo ex Evan-
sonis privatis, non a nee per
conciliis, gelic Nicodemi et aliis nugis sunt infarta,
concilia omnino sunt approbate. Johan. sed ipsae adeo secretae preces (imo ipse, pro
Medin. ut supra. pudor et dolor ! canon et varians et redun-
113
Multa ridiculosa et phantastica. dans) sunt mendis turpissimis conspurca-
Agobard. ad Cantores Lugdunens. de tae. Wil. Lindan. de Opt. Gen. Interpr.
Correct. Antiphonarii, p. 396, edit. Paris. Script, lib. iii. cap. 3.
114
Hac de causa et Antiphonarium pro
116 Missale Romanum ex decreto sacro-
viribus nostris magna ex parte correxi- i
sancti Concilii Tridentini restitutum, Pii
mus ; amputatis his, quae vel superflua, v. Pont. Max. jussu editum, et dementis
vel levia, vel mendacia, aut blasphema viii. auctoritate recognitum. Rom. aim.
vidchantur. Id. ibid. p. 392. 1604, Paris. 1605.
198 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.
1
"
Clemens VIII., I doubt much whether our Romanists
will allow the censure which their Medina hath given of
the prayers contained therein. And therefore if this will
not please them, he hath another answer in store ; of which
117
though his countryman Mendoza hath given sentence
"
that itindigna viro theologo,
is
unworthy of any man
that beareth the name of a divine," yet such as it is you
shall have it. Supposing, then, that the Church hath no
intention to pray for any other of the dead but those that
are detained in purgatory, this he delivereth for his second
resolution: " ll8
The Church knowing
that God hath power
to punish everlastinglyby which, when theythose souls

lived, he was mortally offended, and that God hath not


tied his power unto the Scriptures and unto the promises
that are contained in the Scripture, (forasmuch as he is
above all things, and as omnipotent after his promises as
if he had promised nothing at all,) therefore the Church

doth humbly pray God, that he would not use this his
absolute omnipotency against the souls of the faithful, which
are departed in grace; therefore she doth pray that he
would vouchsafe to free them from everlasting pains, and
from revenge and the judgment of condemnation, and that
he would be pleased to raise them up again with his elect."
But leaving our Popish doctors, with their profound
speculations of the not limiting of God's power by the
Scriptures, and the promises which he hath made unto us
therein, let us return Fathers, and consider
to the ancient
the differences that are to be found among them touching
the place and condition of souls separated from their bodies.
For, according to the several apprehensions which they had
thereof, they made different applications and interpretations
of the use of praying for the dead; whose particular
intentions and devotions in that kind must of necessity

Alphons. Mendoz. Controv. Theo-


117 ideo
post promissa, ac si nil promisisset ;

log. Quaest. vi. Scholastic, num. 5. ecclesia simpliciter Deum orat, ne ilia
118
Sciens ecclesia Deum potestatem absoluta omnipotentia contra animas fide-
habere puniendi aeternaliter animas illas lium, qui in gratia decesserunt, utatur;
cum ideo orat ut eas ab a?ternis pcenis et a
per quas, viverent, fuerat mortaliter
vindicta et judicio condemnations libe-
offensus ; quodque Deus potestatem suam
non alligaverit scripturis, et promissis quae rare, et ut eas cum suis electis re-
in scriptura continentur; quandoquidem suscitare, dignetur. Johan. Medina, ut
ipse super omnia est, et tarn omnipotens supra.
VII.]
OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD. 199

therefore be distinguished from the general intention of tin-

whole Church.
St Augustine, (that I may begin with him, who was,
as most ingenious, so likewise the most ingenuous of
the
all others, in
acknowledging his ignorance where he saw
cause,) being to treat of these matters, maketh this preface
beforehand unto his hearers: " 119 Of hell neither have I
had any experience as yet, nor you; and peradventure it
may be that our passage may lie some other way, and not
prove to be by hell. For these things be uncertain." And
having occasion to speak of the departure of Nebridius his
dear friend " l5?0 Now he " in the bosom
:
liveth," saith he,
of Abraham; whatsoever the thing be that is
signified by
that bosom, there doth my Nebridius live."'* But elsewhere
he directly distinguished this bosom from the place of
bliss into which the saints shall be received after the last
" 1M1
After this short saith " thou
judgment: life," he,
shalt not asyet be where the saints shall be, unto whom
it shall be said, Come, ye blessed of my Father receive the ^

kingdom which was prepared for you from the beginning


of the world. Thou shalt not as yet be there who knoweth :

it not? But now thou mayest be there, where that proud


and barren rich man in the midst of his torments saw afar
off thepoor man, sometimes full of ulcers, resting. Being
placed in that rest, thou dost securely expect the day of

judgment; when thou mayest receive thy body, when thou


mayest be changed to be equal unto an angel." And for
the state of souls betwixt the time of the particular and
" 15?~The
general judgment, this is his conclusion in general:

119
Infernum nee ego expertus sum ad- rosum pauperem dives ille superbus et

huc, nee vos ; et fortassis alia via erit, et sterilis inmediis suis tormentis vidit a
non per infernum erit. Incerta sunt enim longe requiescentem. In ilia requie po-
haec. Augustin. in Psal. LXXXV. situs, certesecurus exspectas judicii diem ;

180
Nunc ille vivit in sinu Abraham :
quando recipias et corpus, quando immu-
quicquid illud est quod illo significatur teris ut angelo aequeris. Id. in Psalm.
sinu, ibi Nebridius meus vivit. Id. Con- xxxvi. Cone. 1.
122
fession, lib. ix. cap. 3. Tempus autem quod inter hominis
121
Postvitam istam parvam nondum eris mortem ultimam resurrectionem inter-
et
ubi erunt sancti, quibus dicetur, Venite, positum est, animas abditis receptaculis
benedicti Patris mei, percipite regnum continet ; sicut unaquaeque digna est vel
quod vobis paratum est ab initio mundi. requie vel acrumna, pro eo quod sortita est
Nondum ibi eris :
quis nescit? Sed jam in carne cum viveret. Id. Enchirid. ad
poteris ibi esse, ubi ilium quondam ulc- Laurent, cap. 108.
200 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

time that is
interposed betwixt the death of man and the
last resurrection containeth the souls in hidden receptacles,
as every one is worthy either of rest or of trouble, according
1 ''

unto that which it did purchase in the flesh when it lived.


Into these hidden receptacles he thought the souls of God's
children might carry some of their lighter faults with them ;
which being not removed would hinder them from coming
into the kingdom of heaven, whereinto no polluted thing
can enter, and from which, by the prayers and almsdeeds
of the living, he held they might be released. But of
two things he professed himself here to be ignorant. First,
ia3
What those sins were which did so hinder the coming
unto the kingdom of God, that yet by the care of good
friends they might obtain pardon. Secondly,
m Whether
those souls did endure any temporary pains in the interim
betwixt the time of death and the resurrection. For how-
soever in his one and twentieth book of the City of God,
and the thirteenth and sixteenth chapters, (for the new patch
which they have added to the four and twentieth chapter
is not
worthy of regard,) he affirm, that some of them do
suffer certain purgatory punishments before the last and
dreadful judgment ; yet, by comparing these places with
the m
five and twentieth chapter of the twentieth book, it
will appear, that by those purgatory punishments he under-
standeth here the furnace of the fire of conflagration that
shall immediately judgment, and, as he
go before this last
otherwhere describeth the effects thereof, " separate some
12r>

unto the left hand, and melt out others unto the right."
Neither was this opinion of the reservation of souls in
secret places, and the purging of them in the fire of confla-

gration at the day of judgment, entertained by this famous


Doctor alone divers others there were that had touched
;

upon the same string before him. Origen, in his fourth


123
Sed quis iste sit modus, et qua; sint 125
Ex his quae dicta sunt videtur evi-
ipsa peccata, quae ita
impediunt perven- dentius apparere, in illo judicio quasdam
tionem ad regnum Dei, ut tamen sancto- quorundam purgatorias poenas futuras, &c.
rum amicorum meritis impetrent indul- Verum ista quaestio de purgatoriis poenis,
gentiam ; difficillimum est invenire, peri- ut diligentius pertractetur, in tempus aliud
culosissimum definite. Ego certe usque differenda est ; nempe, ubiadlibrum xxi.
ad hoc tempus, cum inde satagerem, ad perventum fuerit.
126
eorum indaginem pervenire non potui. Hocagetcaminus: alios in sinistram
Id. de Civitat. Dei, lib. xxi. cap. 27. separabit, alios in dexteram quodammodo
124 in Psal. Cone. 3.
See before, p. 159. eliquabit. Aug. ciii.
VII.]
OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD. 201

book 7Tpt dp-^wv, as we have him


by Ruffinus, translated
r~ 7
(for both in the him by St Basil
extracts selected out of
and St Gregory, and in St Jerome's 59th epistle ad Amtum,
we find the place somewhat otherwise expressed,) saith, that
" ^such as out of this world after the common course
depart
of death are disposed of according to their deeds and merits,
as they shall be judged to be worthy, some into the place
which is called hell, others into Abraham's bosom, and
through divers either places or mansions." And in his com-
mentaries upon Leviticus, he addeth further: " 129 Neither
have the Apostles themselves as yet received their joy ; but
even they do expect, that I also may be made partaker of
their joy. For the saints departing from hence do not
presently obtain the full rewards of their labours ; but they
expect us likewise, howsoever staying, howsoever slacking."
Then touching purging of men after the resurrection,
the
he thus delivereth mind in his commentaries upon Luke:
his
" 130 I think that even after our resurrection from the dead
we shall have need of a sacrament to wash and purge us;
for none can rise without pollutions." And upon Jeremy :

" 131 If
any one be saved in the second resurrection, he is
that sinner which needeth the baptism of fire, which is

purged with burning, that whatsoever he hath of wood, hay,


and stubble, the fire may consume it." Which in his 5th
book against Celsus he doth explicate more at large.
Neither doth Lactantius shew himself to vary much
from him in either of those points; for thus he writeth:

127
Oi cvTevQev KdTa TOV KOIVOV Qdva- tant, ut et egolaetitiae eorum particeps

TOV diroBvi]crKovT9 K Ttav evTavQa tre- fiam. Neque enim decedentes hinc sancti
oiKovofJLOvvrai' el continuo integra meritorum suorum prae-
diot TOV Ka\ovp.evov \(apiov adov, mia consequuntur ; sed exspectant etiam
?>La<j>6piav Tvyyaveiv /cctTa Trjv dvaXoyiav nos, licet morantes, licet desides. Id.
TWV d/j.apTrj/j.dT(av. Origenis Philocalia, Homil. vu. in Lev. cap. x.
130
cap. 1. Ego puto quod et post resurrectio-
128
De hoc mundo secundum commu- nem ex mortuis indigeamus sacramento
nem istam mortem recedentes, pro actibus eluente nos atque purgante; nemo enim
suis et meritts dispensantur prout digni absque sordibus resurgere poterit. Id. in
fuerint judicati; alii quidem in locum Luc. Homil. xiv.
131
qui dicitur infernus, alii in sinum Abra- Si quis in secunda resurrectione ser-

hae, et per diversa quasque vel loca vel vatur, iste peccator est qui ignis indiget
mansiones. Orig. de Principiis, lib. iv. baptismo, qui combustione purgatur, ut
cap. 2. quicquid habuerit lignorum, foeni, et sti-
29
Nondum receperunt laetitiam suam, pulae, ignis consumat. Id. in Jer. Horn.
ne Apostoli quidem ; sed et XIII.
ipsi exspec-
202 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP,

et 132
When God judge the righteous, he will examine
shall
them by Then
they whose sins shall prevail, either in
fire.

weight or number, shall be touched with the fire and burned ;


but they whom perfect righteousness and the ripeness of virtue
hath thoroughly seasoned, shall not feel that fire; for from
thence have they something in them that will repel and put
back the force of the flame. So great is the force of innocency,
that that fire shall fly back from it without doing any harm,
which hath received this power from God, that it may burn
the wicked and do service to the righteous. Yet, notwith-
standing, let no man think that the souls are presently

judged after death. All of them are detained in one com-


mon custody, until the time come wherein the great Judge
doth make trial of their doings." In like manner doth
St Hilary write of the one part: " 133 A11 the faiihful, when

they are gone out of the body, shall be reserved by the


Lord's custody for that entry into the heavenly kingdom,
being in the mean time placed in the bosom of Abraham,
whither the wicked are hindered from coming by the gulf
interposed betwixt them, until the time of entering into the
kingdom of heaven do come." And thus of the other:
" 134
Being to render an account of every idle word, shall
we desire the day of judgment, wherein that unwearied fire
must be passed by us, in which those grievous punishments
for expiating the soul from sins must be endured?" for
46 135
to such as have been baptized with the Holy Ghost

132
Sed et justos cum judicaverit, etiam fidelesomnes reservabuntur, in sinu sci-
igni eos examinabit. Turn quorum pec- licetinterim Abrahag collocati, quo adire
cata vel pondere vel numero praevaluerint, impios interjectum chaos inhibet, quo-
perstringentur igni atque amburentur :
usque introeundi rursum in regnum coelo-
quos autem plena justitia et maturitas rum tempus adveniat. Hilar. in Psalm.
virtutis incoxerit, ignem ilium non sen- cxx.
134
tient; habent enim in se aliquid inde, quod An, cum ex omni otioso verbo ratio-
vim flammae repellat ac respuat. Tanta nem sumus praestituri, diem judicii con-
est vis innocentiae, ut ab ea ignis ille re- cupiscemus, in quo nobis est ille indefessus

fugiat innoxius, qui accepit a Deo hanc ignis obeundus, in quo subeunda sunt
potestatem, ut impios urat, justis obtempe- gravia ilia expiandas a peccatis animas
ret. Nee tamen quisquam putet animas supplicia? Id. in Psalm, cxviii. Octo-

post mortem protinus judicari. Omnes nar. HI.


135
in una communique custodia detinentur, Salutis igitur nostrae et judicii tem-
donee tempus adveniat quo maximus pus designat in Domino dicens Ille bap-
:

Judex meritorum faciat examen. Lac- tizabit vos in Spiritu Sancto et igni ; quia
tant. Institut. Divin. lib. vii. cap. 21. baptizatis in Spiritu Sancto reliquum sit
133
Exeuntes de corpore ad introitum consummari igne judicii. Id. in Matt.
ilium regni ccelestis, per custodiam Domini Canon. 11.
VII.]
OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD. 203

it remaineth, that they should be consummated with the


1

fire of judgment.''
In St Ambrose also there are some passages to be found
which seem to make directly for either of these points; as
these for the former: " The soul is loosed from the body,
136

and yet after the end of this life it is held as yet in sus-

pense, with the uncertainty of the future judgment; so


that there is no end where there is thought to be an end."
" We
read in the books of Esdras, that when the day of
137

judgment shall come, the earth shall restore the bodies of


the deceased, and the dust shall restore the relics of the
dead which do rest in the graves and the habitacles shall ;

restore the souls which were committed to them ; and the


most High shall be revealed upon the seat of judgment."
138
Also that Scripture " nameth those habitacles of the souls
" and
promptuaries," or secret receptacles ; meeting with the
complaint of man, that the just which have gone before may
seem to be defrauded, until the day of judgment, which
is a
very long time, of the reward due unto them, saith
wonderfully, that the day of judgment is like unto a crown,
wherein as there is no slackness of the last, so is there no
swiftness of the first. For the day of crowning is
expected
by all ; day both they who are overcome
that within that

may be ashamed, and they who do overcome may obtain


the palm of victory." " 139 Therefore while the fulness of
time is expected, the souls expect their due reward. Pain
is
provided for some of them, for some glory and yet, in ;

the mean time, neither are those without trouble, nor these

136
Solvitur corpore anima, et post finem occurrens querelae humanae, eo quod justi
vitae hujus adhuc tamen futuri judicii qui praecesserunt videantur usque ad ju-
ambiguo suspenditur. Ita finis nullus dicii diem,per plurimum scilicet temporis,
ubi finis putatur. Ambr. de Cain et debita sibi remuneratione fraudari, mira-
Abel, lib. cap. 2.
ii. biliterait, coronas esse similem judicii
137
Siquidem et in Esdrae libris legi- diem, in quo sicut novissimorum tarditas,
mus, quiacum venerit judicii dies, reddet sic non priorum velocitas. Coronae enim
terradefunctorum corpora, et pulvis reddet dies exspectatur ab omnibus ; ut intra eum
eas quae in tumulis requiescunt relliquias diem et victi erubescant, et victores pal-

mortuorum. Et habitacula, inquit, red- mam adipiscantur victoriae. Id. ibid. ex.
dent animas quae his commendatae sunt; iv. Esdr. iv. 35, et v. 41, 42.
139
et revelabitur Altissimus super sedem Ergodum exspectatur plenitudo tem-
judicii. Ambros. de Bono Mortis, cap. x. poris, exspectant animae remunerationem
ex. iv. Esdr. vii. 32, 33. debitam. Alias manet poena, alias gloria :

138
Denique et scriptura habitacula ilia et tamen nee illae interim sine injuria, nee
animarum promptuaria mmcupavit qu : istae sine fructu sunt. Ibid.
204 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

without fruit." And these for the latter: " 140


With fire
shall the sons of Levi be purged, with fire Ezekiel, with
fire Daniel. But these, although they shall be tried with
fire, yet shall say, We have passed through Jire and water.
Others shall remain in the fire." " 141 And if the Lord
shall save his servants,we shall be saved by faith, yet saved
as were by fire.
it
Although we shall not be burned up, yet
shall we be burned." " 14a After the end of the
world, when
the angels shall be sent to separate the good and the bad,
this baptism shall be when iniquity shall be burnt up
;

by the
furnace of fire, that in the kingdom of God the

righteous may shine as the sun in the kingdom of their


Father. And if any one be as Peter or as John, he is

with this fire." " 143 he that is


baptized Seeing therefore,
purged here, hath need to be purged again there, let him
purge us there also, when the Lord may say, Enter into
my rest : that every one of us
being with that burned
flaming sword, not burned up, when he is entered into that

pleasure of paradise, may give thanks unto his Lord, saying,


Thou hast brought us into a place of refreshment."
Hereunto we may adjoin that observation of Suarez
" 144
the Jesuit: They who think that the souls of men are
not judged at their death, nor do receive reward or punish-
ment, but are reserved in hidden receptacles until the
general judgment, do consequently say, that as men do

140
Igne ergo purgabuntur filii Levi, Intrate in requiem meam ; ut unusquisque

igne Ezekiel, igne Daniel. Sed hi etsi nostrum ustus romphaea ilia flammea, non
in illam paradisi
per ignem examinabuntur, dicent tamen, exustus, introgressus
Transivimus per ignem et aquam. Alii amo3nitatem, gratias agat Domino suo,
in igne remanebunt. Id. in Psal. xxxvi. dicens, Induxisti nos in refrigerium.
141
Et si salvos faciet Dominus servos Id. ibid. Vide et Serm. xx. in eund.
tamen Psalm, cxviii. et Enarrat. Psalm,
suos, salvi erimus per fidem, sic
i.
supra
ignem. Et si non exure-
salvi quasi per p. 220.
144
mur, tamen uremur. Id. ibid. Qui opinantur animas hominum non
142
Siquidem post consummationem se- judicari in morte, nee praemium aut poenam
qui segregent bonos et
culi, missis angelis recipere, sed reservari in abditis recepta-

malos, hoc futurum est baptisma, quando culis usque ad judicium universale, con-
per caminum ignis iniquitas* exuretur, ut sequenter dicunt, sicut non accipiunt ho-
in regno Dei fulgeant justi, sicut sol in mines ultimum prasmium vel poenam, ita
regno patris sui. Et si aliquis ut Petrus neque etiam purgari, donee sit facta gene-
sit, ut Johannes, baptizatur hoc igni. Id. ralis resurrectio et j udicium ; ex quo satis

in Psalm, cxviii. Serm. in. consequenter dicere potuerunt, purgandos


143 Sed
quia hie purgatus, iterum ne- esse homines igne conflagrations . Fr.
cesse habet illic purificari ; illicquoque Suarez. in in. part. Thorn. Qusest. LIX.
nos purificet, quando dicat Dominus, Art. 6, Disput. LVII. sect. 1.
VII.]
OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD. 205

not receive their last reward or punishment, so neither are

they also purged, until the general resurrection and judg-


ment do come; from whence they might say with reason-
able good consequence, that men are to be purged with
the fire of conflagration." And with as good consequence
also may we further add, that prayers were not to be
made for the delivery of the souls of the dead from any
purgatory pains, supposed to be suffered by them betwixt
the time of their death and their resurrection, which be
the that are now in " m ln the
only prayers question.
resurrection, when our works,
unto clusters of grapes, like
shall be cast into the probatory fire, as it were into the

wine-press, every man's husbandry shall be made mani-


11
fest, saith Gregorius Cerameus, sometime Archbishop of
Tauromenium No man as yet is " 14!
in Sicilia. And,
entered either into the torments of hell, or into the kingdom
of heaven, until the time of the resurrection of the bodies,"
saith Anastasius Sinaita. Upon whom Gretser bestoweth
" 147
of
this marginal annotation; that this is the error
certain of the ancient and of latter Greece." And we
find be held indeed both by some of the ancient (as
it to

namely Caius, who lived at Rome when Zephyrinus


in
was Bishop there, and is accounted to be the author of
the treatise falsely fathered upon Josephus,
Trepl T^S
TOU
TTCLVTOS aiTias, a large fragment whereof hath been lately
published by Hceschelius in his notes upon Photius's Biblio-
theca,) and by the latter Grecians; in whose name Marcus
Eugenicus, Archbishop of Ephesus, doth make this pro-
testation against such of his countrymen as yielded to the
definition of the Florentine Council: " U8 say, that nei- We
ther the do receive the kingdom prepared for them,
saints
and those secret good things, neither the sinners do as yet

5
'Ev rfj iraXiyyevea-ia, TWV epytav tioris Graeciae. Gretser. ibid, in margin,

l'l/uLU)V c'iKt]V fioTpVtaV TO) SoKifiaffTLKU) p. 501, edit. Ingolstad.


148
Trvpl TeQevTtav oJs kv \rjvw, /ccrraStjXos Kat tjyuels fiev OUT TOUS ay/oi/s
tj yewpyia eKaa-Tov yiveTai. Gregor. UTToXaftelv TTJJ> TJTOi^iaa/iei/jjv auTots /3a-
Ceram. Homil. in Indictionis sive Novi GiXeiav Kai TO. diropprjTa dyaQd,
Anni Principium. TOI/S d/xa/oTwXous eis TI}V yeevvav ef
146
"QTI ovSeis ovdeirw oude kv yeevvy aelv /5tj, (pajjiev' a'XX' /c5ex6<r6ai TOV
ouSe Iv (3aai\eia fi<Trj\6fv, ews TOU *cai- idiov eKaTepov? K\rjpov, Kai elvai TOVTO
pov TOII/ <ru)/jidr<av di/ao-Tao-ews. Anastas. Kaipou TOU /ue'XXoi/Tos /U6Ttt TTJI; dvd(TTa-
Sinait. (al. Nicaen.) Quaest. xci. Kai Tt}v Kpiariv. OUTOI
<TIV
147
Error veterum quorundam, et recen- \aTtvwv TOUS fiev auTi/ca /ueTa
206 ANSVVEIl TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

fall into hell ; but that cither of them do remain in expec-


tation of their proper lot; and that this appertaineth unto
the time that is to come after the resurrection and the

judgment. But
men, with the Latins, would have
these
these to receive presently after death the things they have
deserved ; but unto those of the middle sort, that is,
to such as die in penance, they assign a purgatory fire,
which they feign to be distinct from that of hell, that
thereby, say they, being purged in their souls after death,
they likewise may be received into the kingdom of hea-
ven together with the righteous." And therefore, as the
Latins in their prayers for the dead, have respect to the
delivery of souls out of purgatory, so the Grecians in
theirs have relation to that other state which is to deter-
mine with the resurrection. As in that prayer of their
" 149 The
Euchologe for example: body is buried in the
earth, but the soul goeth in unknown places, waiting for
the future resurrection of the dead; in which, O gracious
Saviour, make bright thy servant, place him together with
the saints, and refresh him in the bosom of Abraham :" the
" unknown
condition of which places," they do thus further
explicate in another prayer: Forasmuch as by thy divine
will thou hast appointed " 150
the soul to remove thither,
where it received the first being, until the common resur-

rection, and the body to be resolved into that of which


it was
composed ; therefore do we beseech thee, the Father
without beginning, and thine only begotten Son, and thy
most holy and consubstantial and quickening Spirit, that
thou wilt not permit thine own workmanship to be swallowed

aVoXa/Selv rj&j Ta /ca-r' dtav efleXoutrr XGJ/ <rov, ayiois crvvrd^ov, icai ev
Tots Se /jieerots, TOIS tv p.eTavoia
err' ovv 'AflpadfJL oiavdiravcrov. Eucholog. Grasc.
TeTeXeuTjj/cdVi, irvp avTol KaQdptriov, ere- fol. 138.
150
pov TL TT; yeevvi]^ virdpyjov, dvair\d(Ta.v- TJJJ/ Se \l/v)(iiv eKeldev yoapelv, e'i/0a

Tes aTToSiSova-iv, 'iva di avTov, </>rjo-t, /cat TO elvaL TrpoffeXdfieTO, jue^oi T^S
Ka6aip6fjLcvoL Tas x/fvxas /neTa QdvaTov KOivijs dvaffTacrecos, /cat TO ffa>fj.a
ets Ta
6Tri Tt}v /SatrtXetav /cat avToi /uLGTa TU>V e dov Ata TOVTO
<rvvTedij dvaXvea-Qai.
Sixaiuiv aVo/caTao-Two-t. M arc. Ephesius, SeofieQa TOV dvdpypv Trar/oos, /cat TOV
in Epistola Encyclica contra Concil. Flo- fiovoyevov? <rov viov, /cat TOV iravayiov
rentin. Vide et Gennadium Scholarium, /cat bfJLOOva'i.ov /cat ^(aoiroiov <rov irvevfia-
in Defens. Concil. Florentin. cap. iii. sect. 2. TOS, 'iva fjirj TrajOt^tjs TO arov TrXa'ayia
19
Te'OaTTTcu crw/xa p.ev ev yfj, 77 *J/i>X'' KaTaTToQijvai TJJ aTrwXeta, aXXa TO awpa
de ev aStj'Xois iropeueTai, irpocravafjievovcra oiaXvQtjvat ets Ta e wv crvveTeQt], TI}V

Trjv fcrofivr}v veKpwv dvdaTatrLV ev fj, Se \l/V)(il


v KaTaTayffvai ev TU> ^opu> TUV
<pi\dvf)p<aTre r)Tj]/o, Xa^nr/oui/ct? TOV Sov- SiKaiw. Ibid. fol. 151, b.
VII.]
OK I'UAYKR FOR THK DEAD.

up in destruction, but that the body may be dissolved into


that of which it was composed, and the soul placed in the
quire of the righteous."
That " barbarous impostor," rightly styleth as
151
Molanus
him, who counterfeited by St Cyril,
a letter as written

Bishop of Jerusalem, unto St Augustine, touching the mira-


cles of St Jerome, taketh upon him to lay down the precise
time of the first
arising of this opinion among the Gre-
cians in this manner: " 152
After the death of most glorious
Jerome a certain heresy or sect arose amongst the Grecians,
and came to the Latins also, which went about with their
wicked reasons to prove, that the souls of the blessed, until
the day of the general judgment, wherein they were to be

joined again unto their bodies, are deprived of the sight and
knowledge of God, in which the whole blessedness of the saints
doth consist ; and that the souls of the damned in like man-
ner until that day are tormented with no pains. Whose
reason was this: That as the soul did merit or sin with the

body, so with the body was it to receive rewards or pains.


Those wicked sectaries also did maintain, that there was no
place of purgatory, wherein the souls which had not done
full penance for their sins in this world might be purged.
Which pestilent sect getting head, so great sorrow fell upon
us, that we were even weary of our life." Then he telleth a
wise tale, how St Jerome, being at that time with God, for
the confutation of this new-sprung heresy, raised up three
men from the dead, after that he had first " 153 led their
souls into paradise,
purgatory, and hell, to the end they

151
Jo. Molan. Histor. Imag. lib. iii. bant etiam illius sectae nequissimi, nullum
cap. 36. fore purgatorii locum, in quo animae, qua?
152
Post obitum gloriosissimi Hierony- nondum de suis peccatis in mundo plenam
mi, quaedam haeresis inter Graecos, id est, egissent poenitentiam, purgarentur. Qua
secta surrexit, quae ad Latinos devenit,
quidem secta pestifera crebrescente, tantus
qua suis nefandis nitebatur rationibus in nos dolor irruit, ut nos amplius pigeret

probare, quod animae beatorum usque ad vivere. Pseudo-Cyrillus, Tom. n. Ope-


universalis judicii diem, in quo eorum rum Augustini, Epist. ccvi. et sub finem
corporibus erant iterum conjungendae, vi- Tom. iv. Operum Hieronymi edit. Basil,
sione et cognitione divina, in qua tota vel ix. ut a Mariano Victorio tomi sunt
constitit beatitude sanctorum, privabun- dispositi.
tur; et damnatorum animae similiter ad 158
Nam (ut mihi postmodum interro-
diem ilium nullis cruciabuntur poenis. ganti dixerunt) beatus Hieronymus eos
Quorum ratio talis erat : sicut anima cum conduxerat secum in paradisum, purgato-
corpore meruit vel peccavit, ita cum cor- rium, et infernum ; ut quae ibi agebantur
pore recipit praemia sive pcenas. Assere- patefacerent universis. Ibid.
208 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

might make known unto all men the things that were done
there ;" but had not the wit to consider, that St Cyril
himself had need to be raised up, to make the fourth man
among them. For how otherwise should he, who died thirty
years before St Jerome, as is known to every one that
knoweth the history of those times, have heard and written
the news which those three good fellows, that were raised

by St Jerome after his death, did relate concerning heaven,


hell, and purgatory ? Yet is it
nothing so strange to me,
I confess, that such idle dreams as these should be devised
in the times of darkness, to delude the world withal, as that
now broad daylight 154 Binsfeldius and 155 Suarez, and
in the
other Romish merchants, should adventure to bring forth
such rotten stuff as this, with hope to gain any credit of
antiquity thereby unto the new-erected staple of Popish
purgatory.
The Dominican Friars, in a certain treatise written by
them at Constantinople year 1252, assign somewhat
in the
a lower beginning unto this error of the Grecians ; affirming
that they " l56 folio wed therein a certain inventor of this

heresy, named Andrew, Archbishop sometime of Caesarea


in Cappadocia, who said, that the souls did wait for their

bodies, that together with them, with which they had com-
mitted good or evil, they might likewise receive the recom-
pence of their deeds." But that which Andrew saith herein
he saith not out of his own head, and therefore is wrong-
fully charged to be the first inventor
of it; but out of the

judgment of many godly Fathers that went before him.


u 157 "
It hath been said," saith he, by many of the saints,
that all virtuous after " do receive
this
men," life, places
fit for them ; whence they may certainly make conjecture
of the glory that shall befall unto them." Where Peltanus
bestoweth such another marginal note upon him, as Gretser
154
Binsfeld. de Condition. Animarum miserint, retributiones similiter factorum
sect. 5. recipiant. Tractat. contra Graecos, in
post Mortem,
155 tomo auctorum a Petro Steuartio edit.
Fran. Suarez, in part. ni. Thorn.
Tom. iv. Disputat. XLV. sect. 1, Ingolstad. ann. 1616, p. 562.
157 TIoXXoTs TOVTO
num. 1. ycc/o Ttov ayitov
156
Sequentes quendam hujus haereseos elptrrai, -^tapovs dlovs elXtj^evcti TU>V

inventorem, Archiepiscopum quondam TTjs a/oeT/?? e/oyaTwi/ CKacrTov, Si tov /cat

Caesareae Cappadociae, Andream nomine, irepi T?7S /ieXXovatje avTtav 5ojjs Te/c/xat-
qui dixit, propria corpora praestolari, ut povrat. Andr. Csesar. cap. 17, Commen-
cum eis, cum quibus bona vel mala com- tar. in Apocalyps.
VII.]
OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD. 209

" 158 This


his fellow upon Anastasius
Jesuit did opinion :

is now expressly condemned and rejected by the Church."

And yet doth Alphonsus de Castro acknowledge, that " 159 the
patrons thereof were famous men, renowned as well for
holiness as for knowledge ;" but telleth us withal, that
" no
man ought to marvel that such great men should fall into
so pestilent an error, because, as the Apostle St James saith,
he that offendeth not in word is a perfect man"

Another particular opinion, which we must sever from


the general intention of the Church in her oblations and

prayers for the dead, is that which is noted by Theophy-


lact upon the speech of our Saviour, Luke xii. 5, in which
he wisheth us to observe, that 160 he did not say, " Fear
him who after he hath killed casteth into hell;'" but, " hath
" For the sinners which
power to cast" into hell. die,"
saith " are not cast into hell ; but it remaineth
he, always
in the power of God to pardon them also. And this I say
for the oblations and doles which are made for the dead,
which do not a little avail even them that die in grievous
sins. He doth not therefore generally after he hath killed
cast into hell, but hath power to cast. Wherefore let us
not cease intercessions to appease him who
by alms and
hath power to cast, but doth not always use this power, but
is able to pardon also." Thus far Theophylact: whom
our adversaries do blindly bring in for the countenancing
of their use of praying and offering for the dead; not con-

158 eovariav eyovra


Haec sententia diserte est jam con- TrjV yeevvav, a'XX' /3a-

demnata, et ab ecclesia proscripta. Theod. Xelv. ov ydp iravTUii oi diroQv^aKOVTf?


Peltan. ad marginem Latinae suae versio- d/LiapTuo\ol /3dXXovTai eis TIJV yeevvav,
nis. d\\' ev T?7 e%ou<ria /cetTat TOVTO TOV
159
Sunt adhuc alii hujus erroris patroiii, Oeov (joorTe Kal T6 crvyywpelv. TOVTO Se
viri quidem illustres, sanctitate perinde ac \eyio Sid TCS eirl -rots KeKoi/nfj/Liej/ois
scientia clari : Irenaeus videlicet beatissi- yevo/jLevas Trpoo-(popds /cat Tas Siaftoarfis,
mus pro Christo martyr, Theophylact us at ov /jLiKpd (rvvTe\ov<ri TOIS /cat ev dp.ap-

Bulgaria Episcopus, beatus Bernardus. Ttats /Sapctats dTToQavovviv. ov irdvTto*


Nee mirari quisquam debet si tanti viri ovv IULCTU TO aVoKTetj/at /Sa'XXet et? TI]V
in tarn pestiferum errorem sunt lapsi; yeevvav, d\\' e^ovaiav ex L fta\elv. Mtj
quoniam, ut beatus Jacobus Apostolus TOLVVV e\\ei\f/U)fjiev tjjueTs trTrou^a'^oi/Tes
ait,qui non offendit in verbo, hie perfec- ot" eXe^fjLOffvviJav Kal Trpeo-fietwv ci\eov-

tus est vir. Alphons. Castr.lib. iii. advers. <r0at TOV eov(Tiav fj.ev eyovTa /3a\eu/, ov
Haereses, verbo Beatitudo, Haer. vi.
io
"Opa yap OTI OVK etire, 4>o/3t]0tjTe a'XXa Kal avyy<uoplv tivvd/JLevov. Theoph.
TOV TO diroKTelvai fidXXovTa eis
fjLeTa in Luc. xii.
O
210 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [('HAT.

sidering, that the prayers and oblations which he would


" die in
uphold do reach even unto such as grievous sins,"
(which the Romanists acknowledge to receive no relief at
all
by any thing that they can do), and are intended for the
keeping of souls from being cast into hell, and not for
fetching them out when they have been cast into purgatory ;
a place that never came within the compass of Theophy-
lact's belief. His testimony will fit a great deal better the
I61
prayer of St Dunstan who, as the tale goeth, having
;

understood that the soul of King Edwin was to be carried


into hell, never gave over praying until he had gotten him
rid of that danger, and transferred him unto the coast
of penitent souls ; where he well deserved, doubtless, to
162
undergo that penance which Hugh, Bishop of Coventry
and Chester, on his death-bed imposed upon himself;
even to lie in the dungeon of purgatory, without bail
or mainprise, until the general jail-delivery of the last

day.
Another private conceit entertained by divers, as well
of the elder as of middle times, in their devotions for the
dead was, that an augmentation of glory might thereby
be procured for the saints, and either a total deliverance,
or a diminution of torment at leastwise, obtained for
wicked. " 163 If the " do
barbarians," saith St Chrysostom,
bury with their dead the things that belong unto them,
it is much more reason that thou shouldst send with the
deceased the things that are his not that they may be ;

made ashes as they were, but that they may add greater
glory unto him ; and if he be departed hence a sinner,
that they may loose his sins ; but if righteous, that an
addition may be made to his reward and retribution. Yea,
161
Osbern. et Eadmer. (et ex eis, Cap- TOIS d'7re\Qov<rt TCC owra, 7roXX<

grav. et Surius) in Vita Dunstani. Vide <re ffvvaTTOffrelXai, TU> Te-TeXeuTtj/coTi 31-

Gulielm. Malmsburiens. de Gestis Regum KO.IOV TO. aiiTov' ov\ 'iva Tetypa yevrfrai,
Anglor. lib. ii. fol. 50, b.; et lib. i. de KaQdirep enelva, dXX' 'iva irXeiova TouTca
Gestis Pontific. Anglor. fol. 115, b. edit. TrepiftaX-rf S6av K.O.L el /uei/ d/ia/OTwXds
Londin. dirrj\Qev, 'iva rd d/napTrj/ia-ra \v<ry' el &e
162
Injungatis mihi, ut secundum vo- 5t/catos, 'iva 7r/oo<r6>j'/oj yet/tj-rai (jaaQov Kal
luntatem Dei sim in poenis purgatorii dfTK$o<reto. Chrysost. in Matt. Homil.
usque in diem judicii. Roger. Wendover, xxxi. Graec. (xxxn. Latin.) indeque
et Matt. Paris. Hist. Angl. ann. 1198. Homil. LXIX. perperam inscript. ad po-
163
Et yap flupfiapoi pulum Antiochen.
VII.]
OF !' K AYE II FOJt T HF. DI.AI).

in the verylatter days, Ivo Carnotensis, writing unto


Maud, Queen of England, concerning the prayers that were
to be made for the king her brother's soul, saith, that
" 164
it doth not seem idle if we make intercessions for
those who already enjoy rest, that their rest may be in-

creased." Whereupon Pope Innocent the Third doth bring


this for one of the answers wherewith he laboureth to
salve the prayers which were used in the Church of Rome,
that " such or such an oblation might profit such or such
a saint unto glory;" that "
165
many repute it no indignity,
that the glory of the saints should be augmented until the
day of judgment and therefore that in the mean time the
;

Church may wish the increase of their glorification." So


likewise for the mitigation of the pains of them whose souls
were doubted to be in torment, this form of prayer was
of old used in the same Church, as in Grimoldus's Sacra-
mentary may be seen, and retained in the Roman Missal
itself, until in the late Reformation thereof it was removed:
" 166 O
Almighty and merciful God, incline, we beseech
thee, thy holy ears unto our poor prayers, which we do

humbly pour forth before the sight of thy Majesty for the
soul of thy servant N., that forasmuch as we are distrustful
of the quality of his life, by the abundance of thy pity
we may be comforted; and if his soul cannot obtain full

pardon, yet at least in the midst of the torments themselves,


which peradventure it suffereth, out of the abundance of
thy compassion it may feel refreshment." Which prayer
whither it tended may appear partly by that which Pru-
dentius writeth of the play-days, which he supposeth the
souls in hell sometimes do obtain :

164
Non videtur otiosum, si pro his in- ad exiguas preces nostras, quas ante con-
tercedimus qui jam
requie perfruuntur, spectum majestatis tuae pro anima famuli
ut eorum requies augeatur. Ivo. Epist. tui N. humiliter fundimus, ut quia de
CLXXIV. qualitate vitae ejus diffidimus, de abun-
169
Licet plerique reputent non indig- dantia pietatis tuse consolemur ; et si ple-
num, sanctorum gloriam usque ad judi- nam veniam anima ipsius obtinere non
cium augmentari ; et ideo ecclesiam inte- potest, saltern vel inter ipsa tormenta,
rim sane posse augmentum glorificationis quas forsitan patitur, refrigerium de ab-
eorum optare. Innocent, in. Epist. ad undantia miserationum tuarum sentiat.

Archiep. Lugdun. cap. Cum Martha. Orat. pro Defunct, in Missali Romano,
Extra de Celebr. Missar. edit. Paris, ann. 1529; Grimold. Sacra-
166
Omnipotens et misericors Deus, in- mentar. Tom. n.; Liturgic. Pamelii,
clina, quaesumus, venerabiles aures tuas p. 457.
02
212 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

167 Sunt et spiritibus ssepe nocentibus


Poenarum celebres sub Styge feriae, &c.
Marcent suppliciis Tartara mitibus,
Exultatque sui carceris otio
Umbrarum populus, liber ab ignibus;
Nee fervent solito flumina sulphure

partly by the doubtful conceits of God's merciful dealing


with the wicked in the world to come, which are found in
168
others, but especially by these passages that we meet
withal in the Sermons of St Chrysostom :

" 169
This man hath spent his whole life in vain, neither
hath lived one day to himself, but to voluptuousness, to
luxury, to covetousness, to sin, to the devil. Tell me, there-
fore, shall we not mourn for him ? shall we not endeavour
to pull him out of these dangers ? For there be means,
if we
will, whereby punishment may be made light
his
unto him. If, then, we do make continual prayers for him,
if we bestow alms, although he be unworthy, God will
For " 170
respect us." many have received benefit by the
alms that have been given by others for them; and found
thereby, although not perfect, yet some
a consolation."
" 171
This therefore is done, that although we ourselves be
not virtuous, we may be careful to get virtuous companions
and friends, and wife and son, as looking to reap some fruit
even by them also; reaping indeed but little, yet reaping
some fruit notwithstanding." u 172 Let us not therefore simply

is? Prudent. lib. Cathemerinwn, Hymn. oro ? non tentabimus nos ab his periculis
v. eripere ? ) eo-rt yap, CO-TII/, edv 6e\wfj.ev,
168
August. Enchirid. ad Laurent, cap. Kovtyriv avTta yevetrQai TJJJ/ KoXaariv. dv

110, 112, 113; Hieronym. lib. i. contra ovv euxds VTrep avTov Trotuifj.ev arvve-)^el^,

Pelag. et in fine Commentarior. in Esai. ; dv eXetjfJLocrvvTiv didoo/uiev, KO.V e/ceii/os

Gregor. Nazianz. Orat. XL. de Baptismo. dvd^Los fi, tj/xas 6 6eos 5uo-a>7rtjo-eTai.
El /XT; TU> <fri\ov Kavravda voelv TOVTO Chrysost. in Act. Homil. xxi.

tTra%i(a<s. Vide etiam Johannis Metro- aurous yeyewrjjjieviav diriavavro. el yap


politan! Vota ad Christum pro Salute Pla- Kal [Mr] TeXeov, aXX" o^uws TrapajuivBiav
tonis et Plutarchi, p. 32, edit. Anglican. evpov TLva. Ibid.
169 171
Kat OVTOI Trdcrav TV\V WTJJ/ eiKrj TOVTO ovv yiverat, 'tva KO.V avTol
KaTCKOTrr], ov&e fj.iav i}fJLepav et^crev eav- fir]
wu.ev evdpeTot, cnrovSd'( (jafj.ev eTaipovs
>

TW, d\\d Tr) TpvQfji TTJ dcreXyeia, Trj Kal 0iXou? evapeTovs e~)(eiv, Kal yvvalKa
Tr\eovej~ia, Ty d/napria, TW dia(36\tp. Kal vlov, a)s Kap7rovfj.evoi TL Kal 01 avTwv'
TOVTOV ovv ov Qprjvria-ofjiev, eiire p.oi ;
ov /ULLKpOV fJL6V KapTTOVfJieVOl, KapTTOVfJLeVOl tie

7reipa.cr6fj.e6a KIV&VVWV e^apTrdcrat ;


T(av O/JLIOS. Ibid.
( The Latin edition rendereth this, not very 172
M?; Toivvv airXws K\at<afjiev TOV-S
faithfully, Hoc igitur non plorabimus, die, aTTodavovras, ctXXa TOUS ev a/xa/ortat?.
VII.]
OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD. 213

weep dead, but for such as are dead in their sins ;


for the
thesebe worthy of lamentations and bewailings and tears.
For what hope is there, tell me, for men to depart with
their sins, where they cannot put off their sins ? for as

long as they there was peradventure great


were here,
expectation they would be altered, that they would
that
be bettered but being gone unto hell, where there is no
:

gaining of any thing by repentance, (for in hell, saith he,


who shall confess unto thee ?) how are they not worthy
of lamentations?" " 173 Let us therefore
weep for such,
let us succour them to our power, let us find out some

help for them, little indeed, but yet such as may relieve
them. How and after what manner? both praying our-
selves, and entreating others to make prayers for them,
and giving continually unto the poor for them; for this
thing bringeth some consolation."
The like doctrine is delivered by
174
Andrew, Archbishop
of Crete, in his Sermon of the Life of Man and of the Dead ;
and by John Damascen, or whosoever else was author of the
book ascribed unto him concerning them that are departed
in the faith where three notable tales are told of the benefit
;

that even infidels and idolaters themselves should receive by


such prayers as these. One touching the soul of the Empe-
ror Trajan, delivered from hell by the prayers of Pope Gre-

gory ; of the truth whereof, lest any man should make


question, he affirmeth very roundly that no less than
66 175
the whole east and west will witness that this is true
and uncontrollable." And indeed in the east this fable
seemeth first to have risen, where it obtained such credit,
that the Grecians to this do still use this form of
day prayer :

OVTOL QprjVWV Ot|;lOl, OVTOl KOTTCTWV /Cat TLVO. /3otj'0eiai/, fjuupdv [lev, /3oj0eti; 6e

daKpvcau. Troia ydp eX-Tris, elite fioi, fJLCTa 8vvafJLevr}v. TTCOS /cat TIVI TpoTrca

dp.a.pTi]fjidT(av aTreXOeTi', ev6a OVK ecrTiv T ef/xofjievoL, /cat crepous irapa-


dfia.pTrip.aT a. aTro5u<rcc<r6ai \
ccos jut'i/ ydp uxs virep avT(av TTotelarOai,
TJcravevTavQa, t(ra>s fji/ TrpovooKta -TroXXtj' Trevr]<riv inrep auTtiav Sidovres crvve-^to^'
OTI jueTa/SaXoui/Tat, OTI /3eXTtoi/s eaovTai' eX et Tivd TO trpdyfia 7rapa/uu6iai/.
dv oe dTreXQwGtv eis TOV q<$t]v, evQa. OVK Ibid.
(TTiv aVo 174 Andr. Hierosolymitan. Eis TOV dv-
/ueTai/otas Kepddvai TI, ('Ev
yap TO) ao?;, <jj<ri, -rte eo/ioXoyjj(reTat Qpunrivov fliov, /cot eis /coi/ij0ei/Tas. p. 69,
<roi ;) TTUJS ou
Qprfutov dioi ;
Id. in Epist. 70, edit. Meursii.
ad Philip. Homil. in. 175 Kai OTI TOVTO yvn')(Tiov TreXei /cat
173
KXcuco/xep [Jieu ovv TOUTOUS, (3or)6wfj.v a'<5ia/8Xt}TOi/, p.dpTvs ecaa Trdaa /cat ecnrc-
KT<Z Svvctfitv, 7rj|/otf<ra>/zei/ /otos. Damascen. Serm. de Defunctis.
214 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

" 176
As thou didst from punishment by the
loose Trajan
earnest intercession of
Gregory the Dialogue
thy servant
writer, hear us likewise who pray unto thee." And there-
fore to them doth Hugo Etherianus thus
appeal for justify-
Do not, I pray you, " 177
ing the truth of this narration:
say in your hearts, that this is false or feigned. Enquire, if
you please, of the Grecians the whole Greek :Church surely
doth testify these things."
He might, if he had pleased,
being an Italian himself, have enquired nearer home of the
Romans, among whom this feat was reported to have been
acted, rather than among the Grecians, who were strangers
to the business. But the Romans, as we understand by
178
Johannes Diaconus, in the life of St Gregory, found no
such matter among their records ; and when they had notice
given them of the legends of the Church of
thereof out

England, (for from thence received they the news of this


and some other such strange acts, reported to have been
done by St Gregory among themselves,) they were not very
hasty to believe it; because they could hardly be persuaded
that St Gregory, who had taught them that " 179 infidels
and wicked men, departed out of this life, were no more to
be prayed for than the devil and his angels, which were
appointed unto everlasting punishment," should in his practice
be found to be so much different from his judgment.
The
second tale toucheth upon the very times of the
180
Apostles, wherein the Apostless Thecla is said to have
prayed for Falconilla, (the daughter of Tryphaena, whom
St Paul saluteth, Rom. a Gentile and an
xvi. " 181
12,)
idolatress, altogether profane, and a servitor of another god,"

176 'Qs eXutras TTJS /ia'o-riyos Tpaiavov rian. de Regressu Animar. ab Inferis,
ot' e/CTei/ous evreve<as TOV dov\ov crov cap. 15.
178 Johan. Diacon. Vit Gregor.
Tptjyopiov TOV AtaXoyou, eTra'/coucroz/ /cat lib. ii.

Seopevcov arov. Eucholog. Graec.


rifjLfov cap. 44.
179
cap. 19, ut citat Meursius, vel 96, ut Gregor. Moral, in Job. lib. xxxiv.
Baronius, ann. 604, sect. 44, quariquam in cap. 16, quod pene ad verbum descriptum
Euchologio impresso Venetiis ann. 1600 etiam habetur lib. iv. Dialog, cap. 44.
10
nusquam invenerim, ut suspicio sit, a T?;s fj.aKa.pias 0e/cXfjs TT/S diroaTo-
Roman is Censoribus hide fuisse sub- \ov /cat /ndpTvpos. Basil. Seleuc. in ipso
lata. initio Commentarii de Vita Theclze.
177 181
Nolite, quaeso, dicere in cordibus S/foTret Se trdXiv, inrep TII/OS rj at-rj-
vestris, falsum hoc aut fictum esse. Quae- <rts'OTI Trep virep eXXji/i<5os, et&oXoXa-
rite, si placet, apud Graecos : Graeca certe Tpi^os TC, Kal ird/JiTrav dviepov /cat aXXo-
omnis testatur hacc ecclesia. Hug. Ethe- Tpiov KVOIOV epydridos. Damascen.
VII.] OF PRAYER I-' OR THE DEAD. 215

" 182
O
to this effect :
God, Son of the true God, grant unto
Tryphaena, according to thy will, that her daughter may
livewith thee time without end." Or, as Basil,
Bishop of
doth " 183
Grant unto
Seleucia, thy servant
express it:
Tryphaena, may that her desire
concerning her be fulfilled

daughter her desire therein being this, that her soul may
;

be numbered among the souls of those that have already


believed in thee, and may enjoy the life and pleasure that
is in paradise.""
The third tale
he produceth out of Palladius's historical
book written unto Lausus, (although neither in the Greek
set out
by Meursius and Fronto Ducaeus, nor in the three
several Latin editions of that history published before, there
be any such thing to be found,) touching a dead man^s
skull, that should have uttered this speech unto Macarius,
the great Egyptian anchoret: " When thou dost offer up 184

thy prayers for the dead, then do we feel some little con-
solation." A brainless answer you may well conceive it to
be, must be thought
that to have proceeded from a dry
skull lying by the highway side; but, as brainless as it is,
it hath not a troubled the quick heads of our Romish
little

divines, and put many an odd crotchet into their nimble


brains. Renatus Laurentius telleth us, that " 185 without all
doubt was an angel that did speak in this skull."
it And
" 186
I " that this head
quoth Alphonsus Mendoza,
say,"
which lay in the way was not the head of one that was
damned, but of a just man remaining in purgatory ; for
Damascen doth not say in that sermon that it was the head
of a Gentile, as it may there be seen." And true it is,
indeed, he neither saith that it was so, neither yet that it

82 TOTS trapafJLvdia^
Gee vie Qeov d\lfev3ous, flos Tpv- Trpo<T(pepeis, /xt/c/uav

<paivii KUTO. TO crov 6e\i)/j.a, coo-re TTJS aiaQa.vop.eQ a. Damasc.


185
avTfjs Quyarepa TOV altaviov %fjv trapd Non dubium est quin fuerit angelus
<roi XP OVOV Simeon. Metaphrast. in Vita
-
qui in cranio loqueretur. Renat. Laurent.
Theclae. Annotat. in Tertul. de Anima, cap. 33.
183
Aos /cat Ty SOV\TI <ro\>
Tpvcpaivy TOV \
186Ad rem itaque dico, caput illud,
CTTI Tfi QvycLTpl TrXrjpcadrjvai iroQov. iroOos quod, ut habetur in D. Damascene, in
6e avTrj TO TJV e/ceii/tjs ^fv^v -rais TWV via jacebat, non fuisse hominis damnati,
^T; troi ireTricrTevKOTwv vapiQp.r\Qf}vaL sed justi existentis in purgatorio; nam
^i/xats, Kal TT/S ev TrapaSfiaru) ^taiTjjs Damascenus non dicit in illo sermone
K(d Tpvtyfjs aTToXaueiv. Basil. Seleuc. j quod fuerit hominis Gentilis, ut ibi patet.
lib. i. de Vita Theclae. Alphons. Mendoz. Controvers. Theolog.
4
'

"Ore inrep TCOV veKpwv -ras 8eiort--tv Qusrst. VI. Scholast. sect. 5.
216 ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

was not so; but the Grecians generally relate the matter
thus that Macarius " 187 did hear this from the skull of one
:

that had been a priest of idols, which he found lying in the

wilderness, that by his prayers such as were with him in


punishment received a little ease of their torment, whensoever
it fell out that he made the same for them." And among
the Latins, Thomas Aquinas and other of the schoolmen take
this for granted, because they found in the Lives of the
Fathers that the speech which the dead skull used was this :

" 188 I was a


priest of the Gentiles;" so John, the Roman
sub-deacon, translateth it; or, as Rufinus is supposed to
have rendered it, "I was the chief of the priests of the
idols, which dwelt in this place, and thou art Abbot Macarius,
that art filled with the Spirit of God. At whatsoever hour,
therefore, thou takest pity of them that are in torments, and
prayest for them, they then feel some consolation." Well,
saith Mendoza " 189 if St this
then, Thomas, relating history
out of the Lives of the Fathers, doth say that this was the
head of a Gentile, he himself is bound to untie this knot."
190
And doth, resolving the matter thus:
so he that the
damned get no true ease by the prayers made for them, but
such a phantastical kind of joy only, as the devils are said
to have when they have seduced and deceived any man.
" 191
But peradventure," saith Cardinal Bellarmine for the up-
" the which are brought touching that skull might
shot, things
better be rejected as false and apocryphal." And Stephen
" 192 The
Durant, more peremptorily: things which are told
of Trajan and Falconilla, delivered out of hell by the prayers

187
Hapd xpaviov ev Ty epr\fiio Distinct. XLV. Quaest. u. Artie. 2 ad 4;
lepeu><i TWV eiowXtav yeyovoTos TOVTO et Durand. in eandem Quasst. num. 15.

a/crj/coe, -rals avTov fJLLKpov


Trpoaevyai's
191
At fortasse melius rejicerentur, ut
TOUS ev rfj avTov dviecrBai TT/S
jcoXctcrei falsa et apocrypha, quae afferuntur de illo

/3a<rafou, OTOLV Tvyoi TauTas TroieTerOai cranio. Bellarmin. de Purgator. lib. ii.
virep avTtov. Mense. Graec. Januar. 19. cap. 18.
188 192
Vit. Patrum, edit. Lugdun. ann. Quare quod de Trajano et Falconilla
1515, fol. 105, col. 3, 4, et fol. 143, col. (quos liberates ex inferno orationibus Sti
1, 2; et edit. Antuerp. ann. 1615, p. 526 Gregorii et Theclae, ex Damasceno, et
et 656. quibusdam aliis, vulgo fertur,) quae item
189
D. Thomas, hanc historiam
Quod si de cranio arido interrogate a Macario, ex
referens ex Vitis Patrum, dicit fuisse historia Palladii ad Lausum referuntur,

caput Gentilis, ipse nodum hunc tenetur ficta et comraentitia sunt. Steph. Du-
enodare. Alphons. Mendoz. ut supra. rant. de Ritib. Eccles, lib. ii. cap. 43,
190 Thorn. Aquinas, in lib. iv. Sentent. sect. 12.
VII.]
OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD. 217

of St Gregory and Thecla, and of the dry skull spoken to


by Macarius, be feigned and commentitious."
Which last answer, though it be the truest of all the
rest, yet not to be doubted for all that, but that the
is it

general creditwhich these fables obtained, together with the


countenance which the opinion of the Origenists did receive
from Didymus, Evagrius, Gregory Nyssen, (if he be not
corrupted), and other doctors, inclined the
minds of men
much apply the common use of praying
to for the
very
dead unto wrong end
thisof hoping to relieve the damned
St doth shew, that in his time not
thereby. Augustine
" 193 "
only some," but exceeding many" also, did out of
a humane affection take compassion of the eternal pains of
the damned, and would not believe that they should never
have an end. And notwithstanding this error was publicly
condemned afterwards in the Origenists by the fifth general
Council held at Constantinople, yet by idle and voluptuous
194
persons was it still greedily embraced, as Climacus com-
and " 195
even now saith St " there
plaineth :
also," Gregory,
be some who therefore neglect to put an end unto their sins,
because they imagine that the judgments which are to come
upon them shall sometimes have an end." Yea, of late
days this opinion was maintained by the Porretanians, as
1%
Thomas calleth them, and some of the Canonists, (the one
following therein Gilbert Porreta, Bishop of Poictiers, in his
book of theological questions, the other John Semeca in his
gloss upon Gratian,) that by the prayers and suffrages of
the living the pains of some of the damned were continually
diminished, in such manner as infinite
proportionable parts
may be taken from a line, without ever coming unto an end
of the division ; which was in effect to take from them at
197
the last all
pain of sense or sense of pain. For, as Thomas
193
Frustra itaque nonnulli, imo quam- judicia suspicantur. Gregor. Moral, in
plurimi, aetemam damnatorum pcenam, et Job. lib.xxxiv. cap. 16.
cruciatus sine intermissione perpetuos, hu- 196
Gloss, in Gratian. Caus. xui. Quaest.
mano miserentur affectu ; atque ita futu- ii. cap. 23. Tempus. Durand. in lib. iv.
rum esse non credunt. August. Enchirid. Sentent. Distinct. XLV. Quaest. ii.num.J.
ad Laurent, cap. 112. Hcec est sententia aliquorum Juristarum.
194 197
Johan. Climac. in fine v. gradus Quia in divisione lineae tandem per-
Scalae suae. venitur ad hoc quod non est sensibile;
195
Sunt enim nunc etiam, qui idcirco corpus enim sensibile non est in infinitum
peccatis suis ponere finem negligunt, quia divisibile. Et sic sequeretur, quod post
habere quandoque finem futura super se multa suffragia poena remanens propter
218 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [ciIAP.

observeth it
rightly, and198
Durand after him, " in the divi-
sion of a line at last we must come unto that which is not
sensible, considering that a sensible body cannot be divided
infinitely. And so it would follow, that after many suffrages
the pain remaining should not be sensible, and consequently
should be no pain at all."
Neither is it to be forgotten, that the invention of
1
All-Souls Day, (of which you may read, if you please,
Polydore Virgil, in his sixth book of the Inventors of Things,
and the ninth chapter,) that solemn day, I say, wherein
our Romanists most devoutly perform all their superstitious
observances for the dead, was occasioned at the first by the
apprehension of this same erroneous conceit, that the souls
of the damned might not only be eased, but fully also
delivered by the alms and prayers of the living. The whole
narration of the business is thus laid down by Sigebertus
Gemblacensis in his Chronicle at the year of our Lord 998.
199
This time," saith he, " a certain religious man returning
from Jerusalem, being entertained for a while in Sicily by
the courtesy of a certain anchoret, learned from him, among
other matters, that there were places near unto them that
used to cast up burning flames, which by the inhabitants
were called the Pots of Vulcan, wherein the souls of the
reprobate, according to the quality of their deserts, did suffer
divers punishments, the devils being there deputed for the
execution whose voices, angers, and terrors, and
thereof;
sometimes bowlings also he said he often heard, as lament-
ing that the souls of the damned were taken out of their
hands by the alms and prayers of the faithful, and more at

sui parvitatem non sentiretur, et ita non et terrores, saepe etiam ejulatus audisse
esset poena. Thorn, in iv. Sent. Distinct plangentium quod animae dam-
dicebat,
XLV. Quaest. n. Art. 2. natorum eriperentur de manibus eorum
198
Durand. in iv. Distinct. XLV. Quaest. per eleemosynas et pieces fidelium ; et
ii. num. 8. hoc tempore magis per orationes Clunia-
199
Hoc tempore quidam religiosus ab censium, orantium indefesse pro defuncto-
Hierosolymis rediens, in Sicilia reclusi cu- rum requie. Hoc per ipsum Abbas Odilo
jusdam humanitate aliquandiu recreatus, j comperto, constituit per omnia monasteria
didicit ab eo inter cetera, quod in ilia sibi subjecta, ut sicut primo die Novem-
vicinia essent loca eructantia flammarum bris solemnitas omnium sanctorum agitur,
incendia, quae loca vocantur ab incolis ita sequenti die memoria omnium in
Ollse Vulcani, in quibus animae reprobo- Christo quiescentium celebretur. Qui ri-

rum luant diversa pro meritorum qualitate tus ad multas ecclesias transiens, fidelium

supplicia ; ad ea exequenda deputatis ibi defunctorum memoriam solemnizari fecit.

demonibus, quorum se crebro voces, iras, Sigebert. Chron. ann. 998.


VII.]
OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD.

this time by the prayers of the Monks of Cluny, who


prayed without ceasing for the rest of those that were
deceased. The Abbot Odilo having understood this by him,
appointed throughout all the monasteries under his sub-

jection, that as upon the first day of November the solem-


nity of all the saints is observed, so upon the day
following the memorial of all that rested in Christ
should be celebrated. Which passing into many other
rite

churches, made the memory of the faithful deceased to be


solemnized."
For the elect, this form of prayer was wont to be used in
the Roman Church: u O
God, unto whom alone is known
200

the number of the elect that are to be placed in the super-


nal bliss, grant, we beseech thee, that the book of blessed pre-
destination may retain the names of all those whom we have
undertaken to recommend in our prayer, or of all the faith-
ful that are written therein." And to pray, that the names
of all those that are written in the book of God's election
should still be retained therein, may be somewhat tolerable;
considering, as the divines of that side have informed us,
that those things may be prayed for which we know most

certainly will come to pass: but hardly, I think, shall you


find in any Ritual a form of
prayer answerable to this of
the Monks of Cluny for the reprobate ; unless it be that
whereby St Francis is said to have obtained that Friar
Elias should be made ex prcescito prcedestinatus^ " an
201

02
elect of a reprobate." Yet it seemeth that some were
not well pleased
very that what was done so seldom by
St Francis, the 2m angel of the friars, and that for a repro-
bate yet living, should be so usually practised by the

200
Deus, cui soli cognitus est numerus j
suade fools, quod reprobi et praesciti per
electorum in superna felicitate locando- devotionem rosarii vitam ceternam asse-
" that
j

rum, tribue, quaesumus, ut universorum j quantur ; very reprobates, by the


quos in oratione commendatos suscepimus, devout use of the rosary, might obtain
j

vel omnium fidelium nomina, beatae pras- everlasting life." But the friars of his
destinationis liber ascripta retineat.
Greg. own order were so much ashamed thereof,
Opera, Tom. v. col. 226; Alcuin. lib. j
that in the revival of his work of the
Sacramentor. cap. 18, Opera, col. 1190; j Rosary, set out by Coppenstein, and
Missal. Roman, edit. Paris, ann. 1529, !

printed at Mentz, ann. 1624, they have


communes.
'

quite cut it oft* and extinguished it.


inter Orationes
201 303
Raphael Volateran. Comment. Ur- ! Bonaventur. in Prologo Vitae Fran-
ban. lib. xxi. Bernardin. de Busto, Rosar. Tom.
cisci.
j

03
So Alanus de Rupe would fain per- n. Serm. xxvu. part. n.
220 ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

201
followers of St archangel of the monks, for
Odilo, the
reprobates that were dead ; and therefore, in the common
editions of Sigebert's Chronicle, they have clean struck out
the word damnatorum^ and instead of reproborum chopped
in defunctorum. Which
depravation may be detected, as
well by the of Sigebert, published by
sincere edition
Aubertus Mirasus out of the manuscript of Gemblac Abbey,
which is
thought to be the original copy of Sigebert himself,
as by the comparing of him with Petrus Damiani in the life
of Odilo, whence this whole narration was by him borrowed.
For there also do we read, that in those flaming places
" 205
the souls of the reprobate, according to the quality of
their deserts, did suffer divers torments;"" and that the
devils did complain, " 206 that by the alms and prayers'" of
Odilo and others " the souls of the damned were taken out
of their hands."
these things we may see what we are to judge of
By
that which our adversaries press so much against us out
of Epiphanius ; that he " 207 nameth an obscure fellow, one
Aerius, to be the first author of this heresy, that prayers
and sacrifice profit not the departed in Christ." For
neither doth Epiphanius name this to be an heresy, neither
doth it appear that himself did hold that prayers and
oblations bring such profit to the dead as these men dream

they do. He is much deceived who thinketh every thing


that Epiphanius findeth fault withal in heretics is esteemed

by him to be an heresy ; seeing heresy cannot be but in


matters of faith; and the course which Epiphanius taketh
in that work, is not only to declare in what special points of
faith heretics diddissent from the Catholic doctrine, but in
what particular observances also they refused to follow the
received customs and ordinances of the Church. Therefore
208
at the end of the whole work he setteth down a brief, first

204 Fulbert. Carnotens. Epist. LXVI. Inter cetera de Cluniacensium ccetu per-
205 In quibus etiam locis animae repro- maximam et eorum abbate quasrimoniam
borum diversa luunt pro meritorum qua- faciunt, quia saepe per eos sui juris
quam
litate tormenta. Petr. Damian. in Vit. vernaculos perdunt. Ibid.
Odil. Tom. i. Surii. Januar. 1. 207 Allen of
Purgatory and Prayer for
206
Quod orationibus et eleemosynis the Dead, lib. ii.
cap. 14.
208 Kat a
quorundam, adversus eos infcederabiliter fiev ire/cu Trio-Tews c'x et

concertantium, frequenter ex eorum ma- o\iKi] eKK\ri(ria, &C.


nib us eriperentur animas damnatorum. , 7re/oiTe7raT/oos Kcti vlov Kaldyiov
VII.]
OF PRAYER FOR THE UK AD.

of the faith, and then of the ordinances and observances


of the Church ; and among the particulars of the latter
kind he rehearseth this: " 209 For the dead they make com-
memorations by name, performing," or, " when they do
perform, their prayers and divine service and dispensation
of the mysteries ;" and disputing against Aerius touching the

point itself, he doth not at all charge him with forsaking


the doctrine of the Scriptures, or the faith of the Catholic
Church, concerning the state of those that are departed out
of this life, but with rejecting the order observed by the
Church in her commemorations of the dead ; which being
an ancient institution, brought in upon wonderful good con-
siderations, as he maintaineth, should not by this humorous
heretic have been thus condemned. " 210 The Church," saith
" doth
he, necessarily perform this, having received it by
tradition from the Fathers; and who may dissolve the
ordinance of his mother, or the law of his father ?" And
" 211
Our mother the Church hath ordinances settled
again:
in her which are inviolable, and may not be broken.
Seeing then there are ordinances established in the Church,
and they are well, and all things are admirably done, this
seducer is again refuted."
For the further opening hereof it will not be amiss to
consider both of the objection of Aerius, and of the answer
of Epiphanius. Thus did Aerius argue against the practice
of the Church: " 212 For what reason do ye commemorate

o/noouonoTtj-ros, /cat irep TT; 5ui/a/xej/ous /ca

X|(H<rrou K<ti TeXetas Trapovtrias, Toivvv TWV ev Trj e/c/cXtjiria QerrpjLwv, Kai
Kai a\\tov fJLepwv TT/S Trio'Teais. TLepl icaXai? e-^ovroav, Kai TWV icdvTwv Qav/j.acri-
<5e TT;S aiT/;s ei/
6e<rfJL(av oXtyaj fiev /not tos yevop.evu>v, eXrj'Xe/CTat TraXtv /cat OUTO?
TraXiv aVay/oj rov irapaQeaQai TCOI/
ear-rl 6 TrXavos. Ibid.
avTtav Qecr/uLwv aVo yue/oous TO eldos. Epi- 12
Tti/t TO) \6yta fjieTa QdvaTOv 6vop.d-

phan. in fine Panarii, p. 465. eT6 oi/o/xaTa TedvetoTwv ev^CTai yap o ;

%u>v,n olKOvofJLiav eirottjo-e' TI


fJLV->p.a<3 iroiovvTai, Tat o TeOi/eaJs ;
ei de oXws
T6\oi/i/Tes /cat XaT/oetas /cat ot/coi/o/zta?. TavQa TOUS e/cei<re (avi]arev, dpa yovv fit]-
Ibid. p. 466. 5ets eu<re/3etTa) dyaQaTTOLeiTca, a'XXa
fjirjSe
10
'Aj/ayjcaiws tj eK/cXrj<rta TOVTO STTI- /CTTjcra'o-00) <tXous Tti/os, di' ou (3ou\erai
TeXel, irapddoo'iv Xa/3oi/(ra Tr
X/?V a0 1 TTetO'a?, JJTOt $t'XoiS
'

TpOTTOV, IJTOt
Tts <5e oui/jjo-eTat 6eo-/xoi/ di<o<ra<3 kv Trj Te\evrrj t Kai evyevQtoaav
eiv, ?] vofiov Trar/oos; Id. Haeres. LXXV. irepl avTov, 'iva fit] TI e/cet iraQy, yujj^e Ta
p. 388. OVTOV yevop.eva TWV dvrjKe<TTcav dp.ap-
VTT'
1
'H 6e KK\ii<Tia elx e
fjLijTtjp TJ/uwi; TJ K^i]TijQrj. Aerius, apud Epi-
6e<r/uous iv avT?) Kei/xe'i/ous, aXuTOus, /u?) phan. ibid. p. 386.
222 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

after death the names of those that are departed ? He thai,


is
prayeth or maketh dispensation" of the mysteries
alive :

" what shall the dead be


profited hereby ? And if the
prayer of those here do altogether profit them that be
there, then let nobody be godly, let no man do good, but
let him procure some friends, by what means it pleaseth
him, either persuading them by money, or entreating friends
at his death; and let them pray for him. that he
may suffer
nothing there, and that those inexpiable sins which he
hath committed may not be required at his hands." This
was Aerius's argumentation, which would have been of
force indeed if the whole Church had held, as
many did,
that the judgment after death was suspended until the gene-
ral resurrection, and that in the mean time the sins of the
dead might be taken away by the suffrages of the living.
But he should have considered, as Stephanus Gobarus, who
was as great an heretic as himself, did, that the doctors were
not agreed the point;
uponsome of them maintaining,
" 213
that of every one that departed out of this
the soul
life received
very great profit by the prayers and oblations
and alms that were performed for him ;" and others, " on
the contrary side, that it was not so;" and that it was a
foolishpart of him to confound the private opinion of some
with the common faith of the universal Church. That he
reproved this particular error, which seemeth to have gotten
head in his time, as being most plausible to the multitude,
and very pleasing unto the looser sort of Christians, therein
he did well; but that thereupon he condemned the general
practice of the Church, which had no dependence upon
that erroneous conceit, therein he did like unto himself,

headily and perversely. For the Church, in her commemo-


rations and prayers for the dead, had no relation at all
unto those that had led their lives lewdly and dissolutely,
2U
as appeareth plainly, both by the author of the Eccle-
siastical Hierarchy, and by divers other evidences before

214
13
"Qri irai/T Kal yap ovde TOUTO KOLVOV etrrf TOIS
XetTat fj.eyia'Ta Sid TWV iiirep CLVTOV eiri- Ie/ools T6 Kal dviepois. Dionys. Eccles.
Te\ov[Jiev(av eu^wj/, Kal irpofffpopwv, Kal Hierarch. cap. 7, init. Et postea Ato
:

eXerifjLoavvwv' Kal CK TOV avTinei/mevov, rots cti/te'joots OVK tTrevyeTai TOUTCC KCKOI-
OTL oux OVTW. Gobar. in Photii Biblio-
theca, Vol. ccxxxu.
vil.]
OF I'HAVKK 1'OU THE J>K.VU.

alleged ; but unto thosetheir lives in such that did end


a godly manner gave pregnant hope unto the living that
as
their souls were at rest with God and to such as these :

alone did it wish the accomplishment of that which remained


of their redemption ; to wit, their public justification and
solemn acquittal at the last day, and their perfect consum-
mation of bliss, both in body and soul, in the kingdom of
heaven for ever after. Not that the event of these things
was conceived be any ways doubtful, (for we have been
to
told that things may be prayed for, the event whereof is
known to be most certain ;) but because the commemoration
thereof was thought to serve for special use, not only in regard
of the manifestation of the affection of the living toward the
" 215
dead, (he that prayed, as Dionysius noteth, desiring
other men's gifts as if they were his own graces,") but also
in respect of the consolation and instruction which the living

might receive thereby, as Epiphanius, in his answer to Aerius,


doth more particularly declare.
The objection of Aerius was this : the commemorations
and prayers used in the Church bring no profit to the dead ;

therefore as an thing they are to be rejected.


unprofitable
To this doth Epiphanius thus frame his answer: " 216 As
for the reciting of the names of those that are deceased,
what can be better than this? what more commodious and
more admirable? that such as are present do believe that
they who are departed do live, and are not extinguished,
but are still being and living with the Lord ; and that this
most pious preaching might be declared, that they who
pray for their brethren have hope of them, as being in a
peregrination." Which is as much in effect as if he had
denied Aerius's consequence, and answered him, that although
the dead were not profited by this action, yet it did not
therefore follow that it should be. condemned as
altogether
unprofitable, because it had a singular use otherwise ;

5
'E-Trt TO QeofJiifi^Tov ctya6oei5o>s CK- OTI ol dTre\66vTcs ^taari, Kal ev
evos, Kal TCES eTepwv oto/oeas a5s OVK elcrlv, aX\a eteri Kal ^iim
oi/cetas tai-raij/ ^a'/oiTas. Id. ibid. Trapa Tto SeffTTOTri, Kal OTTOJS av TO creu.-
16
Ilept TOV ovofjLdTa. Xeyetv TU>V TC- VOTO.TOV Ki]pvyp.a oitiyqvotTo, ws e\Trts
I av ettjTOVTOV irpovp- ecTTii/ VTrep ddeXffriav euyo/iej/ots tos ev diro-
yia'iTCpov ;
TI TOVTOV KaipituTcpov Kal diifjiia Tvy\av6vT(ov. Epiphan. Hares.
Oavp.aariu)Tcpov ;
Tua-Tevciv fieu TOUS irap- LXXV.
224 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

namely, to testify the faith and the hope of the living con-
cerning the dead the faith, in " 217 declaring them to be
:

alive," (for so doth Dionysius also expound the Church's


intention nomination of the dead,) " and as
in her public

divinity teacheth, not mortified, but translated from death


unto a most divine life;" the hope, in that
they signi-
fied
hereby that they accounted their brethren to have
departed from them no otherwise than as if they had been
in a journey, with expectation to meet them afterward ;
and by this means made a difference betwixt themselves
and Bothers which had no hope. Then doth Epiphanius
proceed further in answering the same objection, after this
" 219
The
manner: prayer also which is made for them doth
profit, although it do not cut off all their sins ; yet foras-
much as we
are in the world we oftentimes slip
whilst
both unwillingly and with our will, it serveth to signify
that which is more perfect. For we make a memorial both for
the just and for sinners for sinners, entreating the mercy of :

God; for the just, (both the fathers and patriarchs, the
prophets, and apostles, and evangelists, and martyrs, and
confessors, bishops also and anchorites, and the whole order,)
that we may sever our Lord Jesus Christ from the rank
of all other men by the honour that we do unto him,
and that we may yield worship unto him." Which, as
far as I apprehend him, is no more than if he had thus

replied unto Aerius: Although the prayer that is made for


the dead do not cut off all their sins, which is the only

thing that thou goest about to prove, yet doth it


profit
notwithstanding for another purpose ; namely, signify to
the supereminent perfection of our Saviour Christ above

217 Toiis fie cos ooi/Tas Kai ydp [wire^] St-


XeiTTepov <rij/j.avdfi.
KO.L cos tj QeoXoyia <f>ti<riv,
ov Kaitav iroiovfieQa TJJI/ yuv7j/x?ji/, Kai UTre/o
c!XX' eis QeioTaTrjV a>]i> eK Qa.va.TOv fj.e- d/napT(t)\wv' virep fiev dpapTcoXiJav, virep
Ta<on-rj'<rai/Tcts. Dion. Eccles. Hierarch. cXeous Qeov QeofievoL' (f. Seop-evoi') virep
cap. 7. Ot yap 0eo> TreTTKrrey/coVes, edv fiediKaiwv, Kai iraTeptav Kai iraTpidpyjav,
Kai KOlfJLt]QS)<TLV, OVK Clffi 1/6/C/OOl. Clem. Kai dirovToXtav, Kai evayye-
<7rpo(priT(iav,
Constitut. Apost. lib. vi. cap. 29. \i(TT(Jav, Kai fiapTvpcav, Kai bfj.o\oyi}Tu>v,
218 1
Thess. iv. 13. eTTia'KO'jrwv T Kai dva^iaptjTcoVf Kai irav-
219 TOS TOV Tay/iOTos, TOV KvpLov 'Iqcrovv
'QfpeXet fie Kai rj virep avTwv yivo- 'iva

p.evi] eu-)(Tt],
'
L Ka i T " ^a ^)V aiTiafidTiov
>T XptcTTov dfjiopia'wfji.ev dirb TTJS TU>V dv-

/in; diroKOTTTOL. ct'XX' ovv ye did TO TroX- QptaTriav Td^etas did T?7s -TT/OOS avTov Tt/i7 s >
XctKis ev Kocr/iO) r/^iae OI/TCCS trc^aXXeo-Oat Kai <re/3as aurw dTrodwftev* Epiphan.
a'/covffieos Te /cat c/couo-ctos, "va TO evre- Haeres. LXXV.
VII
.]
OF Pit AY KB FOR THE DEAD.

the rest of the sons of men,


subject to manifold who are

slips and
falls as long as they live in this world.

For as well the righteous with their involuntary slips,


as sinners with their voluntary falls, do come within the
compass of these commemorations; wherein prayers are
* 2Q
made both for sinners that repent, and for righteous
persons that have no such need of repentance: for sinners,
that being by their repentance recovered out of the snare
of the devil, they may find mercy of the Lord at the last

day, and be freed from the fire prepared for the devil and
his angels ; for the righteous, that they may be recom-
pensed in the resurrection of the just, and received into
the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the
world. Which kind of prayer being made for the best
men that ever lived, even the patriarchs, prophets, apostles,

evangelists, and martyrs themselves, Christ only excepted,


sheweth, that the profit which the Church intended should
be reaped therefrom, was not so much the taking away
the sins of the parties that were prayed for, as the honour-

ing of their Lord above them ; it


being hereby declared,
" 221
our Lord to be
that compared unto any man,
is not

though a man live in righteousness a thousand times and


more. For how should that be possible, considering that
the one is God, the other man?" as the praying to the
" and the one is in
one, and for the other, doth discover ;
heaven, the other in earth, by reason of the remains of
the body yet resting in the earth," until the day of the
resurrection, unto which all these prayers had special refer-
ence. This do I conceive to be the right meaning of
Epiphanius's answer, as suiting best both with the general
intention of the Church, which he taketh upon him to vin-
dicate from the
misconstruction of Aerius, and with the
application thereof unto his objection, and with the known
doctrine of Epiphanius, delivered by him elsewhere in these
terms: " 222
After death there is no help to be gotten, either

20
Luke xv. 7. 6pu)iro<i' KOI o fjikv
ev oupavfo, o &t eirl
1
'Ev cvvoia OVTCI, OTL OVK e<rrii/ ei- -n/s yjjs Std TCC eiri yijs Xft^ava. Epi-
O-OU/UFJ/OS o Kvpios TIVL Ttov dvQpu>TTtav, KO.V phan. cont. Aer. Haeres. LXXV.
TC fivpia Kai CTTCKeiva 228 Oirre OUTC
ei/ StKaioffvini virdp- /j.cv TTOjOta/uu? fixrefieia.*
XtJ CKaffTos dvQpunrwv, Trie yap oTJs TC oc QdvaTOV. o\i ydp Aa(z-
f MJ TOVTO ; o fjiev TOV TT\OV(TIOV
yap etrTi Ocos, o Sc dv- 7T/009 CKCl,

f
226 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE.

by godliness or by repentance. For Lazarus doth not go-


there unto the rich man, nor the rich man unto Lazarus ;
neither doth Abraham send any of his spoils, that the poor

may be afterward made rich thereby ; neither doth the


rich man obtain that which he asketh, although he entreat
merciful Abraham with instant supplication. For the
garners areup, and the time is fulfilled, and the
sealed
combat is and the lists are voided, and the garlands
finished,
are given, and such as have fought are at rest, and such as
have not obtained are gone forth, and such as have not
fought cannot now be present in time, and such as have
been overthrown in the lists are cast out, and all things are
clearly finished, after that we are once departed from hence."
And for the general intention of the Church, beside
what already hath been at large declared of the times past,
let us a little compare the ancient practice of
praying for
the dead maintained by Epiphanius, with the footsteps which
remain thereof in the Euchologue used by the Grecians at
this very day. For first, that the parties prayed for are not
supposed to be in any place of torment, appeareth by that

speech which they apply to the party deceased, even in the


midst of the prayers which they make for the forgiveness
of his sins and the resting of his soul " 223 Blessed is the :

way wherein thou art going to day, brother; for to thee is

prepared a place of rest." And by the prayer following :

" 22 *
He
from hence departed
is breathless, thither where
there is the reward of his works, thither where there is the

joy of all the saints, with whom rest thou this deceased per-
son, O God, of thy mercy and loving kindness." Secondly,
that they make these prayers as well for the righteous as
for sinners, this orison, among others, doth demonstrate:

OUTC o -TrXoucrtos -rrpos TOV Ad^apov, OVTC <ra<pios TTe\ei<oTai /meTa Trjf evTevQev CK-
'Afipadfj. aTrotrreXXet <TKV\(OV TOV irev^TU. 6?;/itai/. Id. contra Cathar. Haeres. LIX.
223
irXoi/TT/crai vffTepov, OVTG b TrXoyertos tan Ma/capta r} bdos i)v iropevr] a-^fiepov ,

alrel'Tai, Kalirep /xera t/ceerias TOV eXetj- ade\<pe, OTI Tfrot/iao-Orj <rot TOTTOS dvaTrau-
fiova 'Afipad/j. Tra/oa/caXetras. efffppdyiVTat o-ews. Eucholog. Graec. edit. Venet. ann.
ydp TCC Ta.fji.iela, /cat Tre-TrXjjjoajTat o XP~ 1600, fol. 118. et 125.
vos, /cat 6 dycav CTeXeirOt), /cat e/cei/eo0jj TO
<r/ca'/ijiia, /cat ol <rre</>ai/oi edodqarav, icai Qevce, e/cel OTTOV o /u.to-0os TWV epywv inrdp-

dytaviad/j.evoi dveTrdyrjcrav, /cat ol fjjj


<0d- %ei, e/cet OTTOV rj \apd irdvTwv ToJvdyiwv'
cram-es e^rjKav, /cat oi /it; dywvia-dfJievoi fjieQ' tov dvd'jrtt.va'ov TOV /ceKOt/iTj/iej/oj/ 6
OVKCTI fVTTOpovcri, not ev T> <r/ca/u^.aTt 6e6s, ws eXerffJuav /cat ^tXdj/Opwjros. Ibid.
^e/3X70t)<rai/, /cat Ta irdvra fol. 126.
VII.]
OF PKAYKll FOR THE DEAD. -227

fa j tn ful w hich h ave l e ft this life


holily, and removed
to thee their Lord, receive benignly, giving them rest out
1"
of thy tender mercy. Thirdly, that in these prayers they
aim at those ends expressed by Epiphanius; as well the

testifying their belief of the peregrination of their brethren


and their living with the Lord, as the putting a difference
betwixt Christ our Saviour and all other men how blessed
soever, (in God, the other but men ; the
respect the one is

one after his glorious resurrection remaineth now immortal


in heaven, the other continue yet in the state of dissolution,
with their bodies resting in the earth in expectation of the
resurrection; the purity and perfection of the one is most
absolute, the manifold failings of the very best of the other
such that they stand in need of mercy and pardon;) this
prayer following may witness :

" 226
O
Lord, our prayers and supplications,
Receive,
and give rest unto all our fathers, and mothers, and brethren,
and sisters, and children, and all our other kindred and alli-
ance ; and unto all souls that rest before us in hope of the
everlasting resurrection. Ancl place their spirits and their
bodies in the book of life, in the bosoms of Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob, in the region of the living, in the kingdom
of heaven, in the paradise of delight, by thy bright angels

bringing all into thy holy mansions. Raise also our bodies
' '
5
TOUS TOV /3l cxXXa /zerao-Tao-is XUTTTJ-
i
TTpOS (TC TOV SeCTTTOT^V /U.Ttt- CTTi TCC X/OTJ<TTOT6/Oa Kai 6vfJL1J-

<i, Seai irpoo-tivtos, dvairavcov a, Kai dvdiravcris Kai \apd. Ei Se


cos ei/o-TrXayxJ'os. Ibid. fol. 116. b. Kai TI qfj.dpToiu.ev eis are, i'Xews yevov i][iiv
26
Aeai, Seo-TTOTa, 5erj<reis Kai i/ceaias TC Kai auToTs' SIOTI ou^eis KaQapos etVo
Kai dvdiravcrov iravra's TOUS CTOV, Ol5' aV
pUTTOV eVtUTTLOV fJLta l]fJLpa TJ

eitdcrrov Kai fJU]Tepa<s, dde\<pov<> ^o)^ avTov ecrTiv, ei fj.^ (i6vo< <rv 6 eiri
Kai d8e\<pd<i Kai TeKva, Kai CITL aXXo O/JLO- yfjs </)ai/6ts dvafidpTt]TO^, o Kupio?
yei/es Kai b/uLotpvXov, Kai irao'as TCCS irpo- 'Irjtrovs X/OKTTOS, Si ov Trdvres eXiri

avaTravo-a/JLeva? \l/v~)(as eir' eXiriSi dva- eXeovs TV^elv Kai a'^eo-etus dfiapTiiav.
rrd(rea)s aiwviov. Kai KaTarafcov rd AictTOVTO i]fjilv TC Kai avTols, eJs aya6os
TrveufjLaTa avTcav Kai TO. crwfJLara eu Kai <pi\dv6p(aTros 0e6s, awcv, d<pef t trvy-
$w^s, kv /coXTTois 'Aflpadfj. Kai
/3i/3Xift %(opti<rov Ta Tra/oa-TTTaJ/ictTa IJ/ULCOV, -ra
'I&aaK Kai 'IaKto(3, kv ^cJpais ^to'j/Ttoi/, eis eKovaia Kai TCC aKovaria, Ta ev yvtaarei Kai
f}a<ri\eiav ovpavtav iv Trapaoeitria Tpv(j>rjs, ev dyvoia, Ta Tr/ooorjXa, TO \avQdvovra,
3ia Tiiav <f>u>Teiviov
dyyeXwv <rov elordycav Ta ej; irpafcei, TCC ti/ Siavoia, Ta ev Xoyw,
airavra's cts Tas ayias arov fiovdi. <rvve- Ta ev 'jracraii i]fj.u)V TOIS dva<TTpo<pals Kai
yeipov Kai TCC crwjULaTa II/JLWV ev rj/ie/oa fj TOIS Kiv^fMa(Ti. Kai ToTs fiev TTpoXafiovo-iv
(jopiaras, Kara TCCV dyia-s <rov Kai d\}/evdels (\ev6epiav Kai dvecriv Su>pr\crai. jjuas oe
t'TrayyeXtas. ou/c etrTiv ovv, Ku/xte, Tots TOUS Tre/oioi/Tas ev\6yr)<rov, TeXos dyaQov
oouXots ffov 6a't/aTOS, enBrtfiouvTiov ii/miav
Kai eipijviKov Trapf^Ofj.evo^ nfJ.lv T6 Kai
ciiro TOV arta/j.aTO'! Kai Trpos <re TOV Oeov iravTi TO) \aw arov. Ibid. fol. 176. b.
P2
228 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

together with theirs in the day which thou hast appointed,


according to thy holy and true promises. It is not a death
then, O Lord, unto thy servants, when we flit from the
body and go home to thee our God, but a translation from
a sorrowful state unto a better and more
delightful, and
a refreshment and joy. And if we have sinned in any thing
against thee, be gracious both unto us and unto them.
Forasmuch as no man is clean from pollution before thee,
no, though his life were but of one day, thou alone excepted
who didst appear upon earth without sin, Jesus Christ our
Lord, by whom we hope to obtain mercy
all and pardon
of our sins. Therefore, as a good and merciful God, release
and forgive both us and them pardon our offences as well :

voluntary as
involuntary, knowledge and of ignorance,of
both manifest and hidden, in deed, in thought, in word, in
all our conversations and motions. And to those that are
gone before us grant freedom and release, and us that
remain bless, granting a good and a peaceable end both to
us and to all thy people." Whereunto this other short
" 227
prayer also for one that is deceased may be added None, :

no, not one man hath been without sin but thou alone, O
Immortal. Therefore, as a God full of compassion, place
thy servant in light with the quires of thine angels; by thy
tender mercy passing over his iniquities, and granting to
him the resurrection."
Lastly, that these prayers have principal relation to the
judgment of the great day, and do respect the escaping of
the unquenchable fire of Gehenna, not the temporal flames
of any imaginary purgatory, is plain, both by these kinds
of prosopopreias, which they attribute to the deceased:
" 228
Supplicate with tears unto Christ, who is to judge my
poor soul, that he would deliver me from that fire which is
" 229 I beseech all
unquenchable." my acquaintance and my
friends, make mention of me in the day of judgment, that

227 Ousels aim/ua/OTtjTos, ousels TWV dv- X^U^JJI/, OVV dK X/OICTTOJ/ LKTV(TaTe f
yeyovev, ei /ntj
<ripove dQdvaTe. OTTCOS /ie TTU/OOS TOV darSeffTov.
$l6 TOV 0~OV\OV <TOV, COS 06OS Ibid. fol. 134. b.
eV (frtDTl KaTOLTOL^OV <TVV Tots 229
'I/ceTewtt) Trct'i/Tas TOUS yiKtMrTovs Kal
trials &ov
dyye\tov crov, Trj evtnr\ay')(yi ( TTjOoa^uXeTs /xou, fiveiav Troiel-re fiov ev
vTrepftaivwv Kal Trape^wv av- TOV
dvo/JLi'ifMCiTa, i]fjipa fc/3i<rea)s, t'j/a
evpco e'Xeos eirl
Tta Trjv dvd&Taa-LV. Ibid. fol. 121. b. TOV Ibid.
/3j'/xaTos eKfivov </>o/?e/ooi/.
28 Toy evoi/ra Kpivai Trjv Taireivi'iv JULOV
VII.] 01 PllAYER EOll THE DEAD. 229

I find at that dreadful tribunal." " 230


Bemired
may mercy
with sins and naked of good deeds, I that am worms1 meat
cry in spirit. Cast not me, wretch, away from thy face;
place me not on thy left hand, who with thy hands didst
fashion me; but give rest unto him whom thou hast taken
away by thy command, O Lord, for thy great mercy sake.
11
""s

And by these prayers, which are accordingly tendered for


him by the living '* 231
When in unspeakable glory thou
:

dost come dreadfully to judge the whole world, vouchsafe,


O Redeemer, that thy faithful servant, whom thou hast
this
taken from the earth, may in the clouds meet thee cheer-
11 " 232
fully. They who have been dead from the beginning,
with terrible and fearful trembling standing at thy tribunal,
await thy just censure, O Saviour, and receive God^ righteous

judgment. At that time, O Lord and Saviour, spare thy


servant, who in faith is gone unto thee, and vouchsafe unto
him thine " 233 None shall 11
everlasting joy and bliss. fly
there the dreadful tribunal o? thy judgment. All kings and
princes with servants stand together, and hear the dread-
ful voice of the Judge condemning the people which have
sinned into hell, from which, O Christ, deliver thy servant.
11

" O spare him whom thou hast


234
At that time, Christ,
translated hence.
11 " 235
O Lord our only King, vouchsafe,
we beseech thee, thine heavenly kingdom to thy servant,
whom thou hast now translated hence, and then preserve
him uncondemned when every mortal wight shall stand before
thee the Judge to receive their judgment."

230 -rats dp.apTiais, /cat TTL<TTl TOV


Be/3ojO/?opo>)uej/o OTOV, 7T/3OS (TC /JLCTCtCTTaVTO? ,

ycyvfjLVWfJLevos KaTop6u)fj.dTcav, Kpavyd^w Kai T^S d'iSiov Tpv(p^ <rov Kai [i

TU> TrvevfjiaTi, )] fiopd TU>V <r/ca>Xrf/ca)i/. /utj TtjT-os dglwffov. Ibid. fol. 122. a.
33
/nc TI]V TaXaivav aTroppiif/ris diro TOV <rov Ovoeis c/c0eu^e-Tat /cei TO
/utj fie eevwvvfuov CTTfj'o-fjs o TJ)>S Kpitretos <rov /3^/ia. /SaatXeTs, Svva-
i aov fj.e TrXdVas. aXX" dvdirava-ov ov OTUI a'lrai/Tes crvv TOIS 6"ouXots a'/xa

TrpoarTafcei <rov, Kvpie, TrapicrTavTai, Kai (ptovrjs KpiTov <^)o/Se/oas,


did TO fMeya orov eXeov. Ibid. fol. 138. b. TOUS d/xa/oTf<raj/Tas Xaoi/s eis Kpiaiv ye-
31 TOV oov\6v
'AfypdaTio TTJ fiofcri
ffov oTav eXSjjs ej/i/Tjs, e^ ^s, X/oio-Tt, pv<rai
</)o/3e/3ois Kplvai TOV KOO-/J.OV diravTa, ev <rov. Ibid. fol. 130. b.
234
veipeXais evdoKijtrov \VTptaTOV TdVe (fre'iaai, Aoye, TOV evOa juera-
inravTija-ai <roi, ov CK y ffTa'j/Tos. Ibid. fol. 133. a.
TTKTTOV dou\6v troy. 235
Ibid. fol. 116. a. K.vpie fJLOve /3a<rtXeu, /iao^Xelav ou-
Tpoyuw TO) (fipiKTta Kai (pofiepta /3j- paviov dia><Tov ov vvv /tz6Te'(TT]o-as TTKTTOV
fiaTi Tto (TM Tra/oeo-TtoTes, 01 atwisos aV aov tiovXov, TrapaKaXovfJLCv ere, /cat a'/ca-
venpoi dvafievovGi TI}U <r>jf 01-
\l/ii<j>ov TttKplTOV aVTOV TOTC 6taT)//OJJ<rOJ/, IfVlKa
Kttlav, "SwTijp, Kai TI]V Qfiav lK&e\prrai aVas /3/ooTos irapaaTi} <roi TM KfHTtj
Tore </>ei<rai TOV Sov\ou Ibid. fol. 138. a.
230 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

We
are to consider, then, that the
prayers and oblations,
for rejecting whereof Aerius was
reproved, were not such
as are used in the Church of Rome at this but such day,
as were used by the ancient Church at that time, and for
the most part retained by the Greek Church at this
present.
And therefore as we, in condemning of the one, have nothing
to do with Aerius or his cause, so the Romanists, who dislike
the other as much as ever Aerius did, must be content to
let us alone, and take the charge of Aerianism home unto
themselves. Popish prayers and oblations for the dead, we
know, do wholly depend upon the belief of purgatory if :

those of the ancient Church did so too, how cometh it to

pass that Epiphanius doth not directly answer Aerius, as a


Papist would do now, that they brought singular profit to
the dead by delivering their tormented souls out of the
flames of purgatory ; but forgetting as much as once to
make mention of purgatory, (the sole foundation of these

suffrages for the dead, in our adversary's judgment,) doth


trouble himself and his cause with bringing in such far-fetched
reasons as these: That they who performed this duty did
intend to signify thereby that their brethren departed were
not perished, but remained still alive with the Lord; and
to put a difference betwixt the high perfection of our Saviour
Christ and the general frailty of the best of all his servants ?
Take away popish purgatory on the other side, (which in
the days of Aerius and Epiphanius needed not to be taken

away, because it was not as yet hatched,) and all the reasons
produced by Epiphanius will not withhold our Romanists
from absolutely subscribing to the opinion of Aerius; this
" ^if
being a case with them resolved, that purgatory be
not admitted after death, prayer for the dead must be un-
11

profitable. But though Thomas Aquinas and his abettors


determined so, we must not therefore think that Epiphanius
was of the same mind, who lived in a time wherein prayers
were usually made for them that never were dreamed to
have been in purgatory, and yieldeth those reasons of that
usage, which overthrow the former consequence of Thomas
every whit as much as the supposition of Aerius.

236
Ad hoc etiam est universalis ec- si purgatorium post mortem non pona-
clesiae consuetude, quae pro defunctis tur. Thorn, contra Gentiles, lib. xiv.
orat; quae quidem oratio inutilis esset, cap. 91.
VII .] OF PRAYEll FOR THE DEAD. 231

For Aerius and Thomas both agree in this, that prayer


for the dead would be altogether unprofitable if the dead
themselves received no special benefit thereby. This doth
Epiphanius, defending the ancient use of these prayers in
the Church, shew to be untrue, by producing other profits
that redound from thence unto the living ; partly by the

public signification of their faith, hope, and charity toward


the deceased ; partly by the honour that they did unto the
Lord Jesus, in exempting him from the common condition
of the rest of mankind. And to make it appear that these
things were mainly intended by the Church in her memorials
for the dead, and not the cutting off of the sins which they
carried with them out of this life, or the releasing of them
out of any torment, he allegeth, as we have heard, that not
only the meaner sort of Christians, but also the best of them
without exception, even the prophets and apostles and martyrs
themselves, were comprehended therein. From whence, by
our adversary's good leave, we will make bold to frame this
syllogism :

They who reject that kind of praying and offering for the
dead which was practised by the Church in the days of
Aerius, are in that point flat Aerians.
But the Romanists do reject of praying and
that kind

offering for the dead which was practised by the Church


in the days of Aerius.
Therefore the Romanists are in this point flat Aerians.
The assumption, or second part of this argument, (for the
first, we think, nobody will deny,) is thus proved :

They who are of thejudgment that prayers and oblations


should not be made for such as are believed to be in
bliss, do reject that kind of praying and offering for
the dead which was practised by the ancient Church.
But the Romanists are of this judgment.
Therefore they reject that kind of praying and offering for
the dead which was practised by the ancient Church.
The truth of the first of these propositions doth appear
by the testimony of Epiphanius, compared with those many
other evidences whereby we have formerly proved, that it
was the custom of the ancient Church to make prayers and
them of whose resting in peace and bliss there
oblations for
was no doubt at all conceived. The verity of the second
232 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

is manifested by the confession of the Romanists themselves,


who reckon this for one of their
" 237 Catholic
Verities," that
suffrages should not be offered for the dead that reign with
Christ; and, therefore, that an ancient
" ^form of
praying
for the apostles, martyrs, and the rest of the saints, is
by
disuse deservedly abolished,"" saith Alphonsus Mendoza. Nay,
839
to offer sacrifices and prayers to God for those that are
"
in bliss, plainly absurd and impious," in the judgment
is

of the Jesuit Azorius; who was not aware that thereby he


did outstrip Aerius in condemning the practice of the ancient
"
Church, as far as the censuring it only to be unprofitable"
(for TI u>(f)\rj9iicrT(u o reQvews', what shall the dead be

profited thereby? was the furthest that Aerius durst to go)


cometh short of rejecting it as " absurd and impious." And
therefore our adversaries may do well to purge themselves
firstfrom the blot of Aerianism, which sticketh so fast unto
them, before they be so ready to cast, the aspersion thereof
upon others.
In the meantime, the reader who desireth to be rightly
informed in the judgment of antiquity touching this point,
is to remember that these two questions must
necessarily be
distinguished in this enquiry Whether prayers and obla-
:

tions were to be made for the dead ? and, Whether the dead
did receive any peculiar profit thereby ? In the latter of
these he great difference among the doctors; in
shall find
the former very little, or none at all. For " 240 howsoever
all did not agree about the state of the souls," saith Cassander,

an indifferent Papist, " which might receive profit by these


things, yet all did judge this duty, as a testimony of their
love toward the dead, and a profession of their faith touching
the soul's immortality and the future resurrection, to be

237 Tom. iv. in part. surdum Jo. Azor. Institut.


Fran. Suarez, et impium.
in. Thorn. Disp. XLVIII. sect. 4, num. Moral. Tom. i. lib. viii. cap. 20.
240
10. Quamvis de statu illo animarum,
238 Ilia
formula precandi pro apostolis, quibus haec prodessent, non satis consta-
martyribus, &c. merito per desuetudinem ret, nee inter omnes conveniret; omnes

exolevit. Mendoz. Contro- tamen hoc officium, ut testimonium cari-


Alphons.
vers. Theologic. Quaest. Scholastic, vi.
tatis erga defunctos, et ut professionem
sect. 7. fidei de immortalitate animarum et futura

resurrectione, Deo gratum et ecclesize utile


239
Graeci sacriticia et preces offerunt
Deo pro mortuis ; non beatis certe, neque
esse judicarunt. Cassand. Consultat. ad
damnatis ad inferos, quod plane esset ab- Ferdinand, i. et Maximilian, n. Art. 24.
VI
,11.]
f OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD. 233

acceptable unto God and profitable to the Church." There-


condemning the general practice of the Church herein,
fore for
which aimed at those good ends before expressed, Aerius was
condemned; but for denying that the dead received profit
thereby, either for the pardon of the sins which before were
unremitted, or for the cutting off or mitigation of any torments
that they did endure in the other world, the Church did never
condemn him was no new thing invented by him.
; for that
Divers worthy men, before and after him, declared themselves
to be of the same mind, and were never for all that charged
with the least of " 2n The narration of
suspicion heresy.
Lazarus and the rich man," saith the author of the Questions
and Answers in the works of Justin Martyr, " presenteth
this doctrine unto us, that after the departure of the soul
out of the body men cannot by any providence or care obtain
" 242
any profit." Then," saith Gregory Nazianzen, "in vain
shall any one go about to relieve those that lament. Here
men may have a remedy, but afterwards there is
nothing
but bonds," or, " all are fast bound." " 243 after
things For,
death the punishment of sin is remediless," saith Theodoret;
<<244
and, the dead," saith Diodorus Tarsensis s "have no
hope
of any succour from man ;" and therefore St Jerome doth
" while we are in this
conclude, ^that present world we
may be able to help one another, either by our prayers or
by our counsels ; but when we shall come before the judg-
ment-seat of Christ, neither
Daniel, nor Noah, Job, nor
can entreat for any one, but every one must bear his own
burden."
Other doctors were of another judgment, That the dead
received special profit by the prayers and oblations of the
241
"EffTl 6t TO TOV M4 Ol
-7T6/CH Att^Ct/OOU KCtt veKpol e\TTiou(rtv OVKCTI (io^Beiav
TOU Tr\ov(riov Sirjytifjia uTTOTuirtotrts \6yov dvQp(airivi}V oiiSefiiav. Diodor. Caten.
$t5acr/ca\iai/ joi/TO9, TOV 5ui/a<r6ai Graec. in Psalm. Lxxxvii. 5, MS. in
/j.t] pub-
ftTCt Tr)V 6/C TOU <r<O/J.aTO? T7/S lica Oxoniensis Academia? Bibliotheca.
245
^ U X^ S KaT<* irpovoidv Tiva Obscure licet
docemur, per hanc
to(pf\eias TII/OS Tvyelv TOUS sententiolam, novum dogma quod latitat :

Justin. Resp. ad Orthod. Quaest. LX. dum in praesenti seculo


sumus, sive ora-
12
TT//KOS ocvpop-evoiaiv eTuxria Tts KCV tionibus sive consiliis invicem nos
posse
dfivvai. 'Ej/0ct(5' acos /ne/joVeo-tri, TO 5' coadjuvari; cum autem ante tribunal
vcrTftTa dear/j.ia TrdvTa. Greg. Nazianz. Christi venerimus,non Job, non Daniel,
in Carm. de Rebus suis. nee Noe rogare posse pro
13
quoquam, sed
Post mortem pccna peccati est im- unumquemque portare onus suum. Hie-
medicabilis. Thcodoret. Quawt. in lib. ii. ronym. lib. iii. Commentar. in Galat.
Reg. cap. 18, 1'J. cap. 6.
234 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [dlAP.

living, either for the remission of their sins or the easing


of their punishment. But whether this were restrained to
smaller offences only, or such as lived and died in great sins

might be made partakers of the same benefit ; and whether


these men's torments might be lessened only thereby, or in
tract of time quite extinguished, they did not agree upon.

Stephanus Gobarus, whom before I alleged, made a collec-


246
tion of the different sentences of the Fathers, whereof some
contained the received doctrine of the Church, others the
unallowable opinions of certain of the ancient that varied
therefrom. Of this latter kind he maketh this sentence to
be one: " 247
That such sinners as be delivered unto punish-
ment are purged therein from their sins, and after their

purging are freed from their punishment ; albeit, not all who
are delivered unto punishment be thus purged and freed,
but some only ;" whereas " the true sentence of the Church
was, that none at all was freed from punishment." If that
were the true sentence of the Church, that none of those
who suffered punishment in the other world were ever freed
from the same, then the applying of prayers to the helping
of men's souls out of any such punishments must be referred
to the erroneous apprehension of some particular men, and
not to the general intention of the ancient Church ; from
which in this point, as in many others beside, the latter
Church of Rome hath swerved and quite gone astray. The
ancient writer of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, handling this
matter of praying for the dead professedly, 248 doth by way
of objection move this doubt " To what
:
purpose should
the Bishop entreat the divine Goodness to grant remission
of sins unto the dead, and a like glorious inheritance with
those that have followed God?" seeing by such prayers he
can be brought to no other rest but that which is fitting
for him, and answerable unto the life which he hath here
246 T Qv a! TO ov8ei<i aTroXueTcct TIJS /coXatrews.
fj.ev eKK\.t]<riatrTiKov <ppo- ,

vt]u.a, ai Be crvveKpoTOW TO ct'Tro/SXtjToi'. Ibid.


48
Phot. Bibliothec. Vol. ccxxxn. $aitjs o' av o-Trtos, TavTa /JLCV o/o0ais
247 "OTI oi TTJ KoXdarei TrapaftidofjLevoi ei/oJjo-Sat Trap' diropelv oe OTOV
r$/j.iJov,

Tail/
dfJLapTcoXwv KaQaipovTai TJJS /ca/aas eveKa T;/S Qeap^iKTJ^ ayaOo-rfj-ros b lepdp-
ev avTrj, Kal /ne-ra Tr\v Ka.Qa.paiv aTro- ?s oelTai TWV ^aTtjj.evwv aiTwv TU>
XuovTai TT;S /coXa<Tfa)s. /cat TOL ou irdvTes KeKOi/j.i]fievu> Ti]v feaiv, Ka TJJJ/ TOIS
7ra/ia5o0eVres Trj KoXdcrei KaQaipovTat 06oetoe<riy o^ioTayt] /cat (pavoTaTi)u diro-
Kal dTroXvovTaL, dXXd Tti/es. Kal OTI, K\tpiotriv. Dionys. Ecclesiast. Hierarch.
oirep <TTII> rt\?;0es T^S e/cKXtj<ri'as (ppo- cap. 7.
VII.]
OF PRAYER FOR THE DEAD. 235

led. If our Romish divinity had been then acknowledged

by the Church, there had been no place left to such ques-


tions and doubts as these. The matter might easily have
been answered, that though a man did die in a state of grace,
yet was he not presently to
be admitted unto the place of
rest, but must first be reckoned withal, both for the com-
mittal of those smaller faults unto which, through human

frailty, he was daily subject, and for


the not performance
of full penance and satisfaction for the greater sins, into
which in this life he had fallen; and purgatory being the
place wherein he must be cleansed from the one,
and make
up the just payment for the other, these prayers were directed
unto God for the delivery of the poor soul, which was not now
in case to help itself out of that place of torment.
But this author, taking upon him the person of St Paul's
scholar,and professing to deliver herein " ^that tradition
which he had received from his divine Master," saith no
such thing, but giveth in this for his answer " The divine :

Bishop, as the
Scriptures witness, the interpreter of the is

divine judgments; for he is the angel of the Lord God

Almighty. He
hath learned, therefore, out of the oracles
delivered by God, that a most glorious and divine life is by
his just judgment worthily awarded to them that have lived

holily, his divine goodness and kindness passing


over those
blots which by human frailty he had contracted; forasmuch
asno man, as the Scriptures speak, is free from pollution.
The Bishop, therefore, knowing these things to be promised
by the true oracles, prayeth that they may accordingly come
to pass, and those sacred rewards may be bestowed upon them
that have lived holily." The Bishop at that time belike did
not know so much as our popish Bishops do now, that God's
servants must dearly smart in purgatory for the sins where-

19 VTTO Ttav Sucaurrdruv ^vywv dvri-


Hepi oe TTJS elpTj/iej/rj9 evyrfi rjv o
lepdpx 1 ^ GTrevyeTai ra> Ke/coi/itjftei/o), Tt/v T^S 0eap-
rapo/oa!<njs a'yaOoTtjTi
eis tj/ias tXQovorav CK TWV evQeaav rj/xaii/

KaQtiyefiovujv Trapdoocriv e'nrelv dvay- dvQptirtriwi]? dcrBeveias


KOIOV. 'O 0eTo tCf CTreiTrep oWeis,tus Ta \6yia (pi](rl >

to-Tif, aJs TCC Xoyia diro puTrov. TauTa ftev ovv o l

OKcaieo/uaTcoi/. ayyeXos ya/o Kvpiov irav-


eldev eirtjyyeXfieva irpos TU>V dXijtiiav \o-

ytcoi/. alret
3e OUTCC yez/e'<r0at, /cai 5wptj-
TO/c/oaVopos 0eou CO-TI. /jLefJidfajKev ovv IK j

Taiy OeoTropaQpTfi' Xoyi'ojj/, oTt TOIS 6<ria)s 0^i/at TOIS 6<ria>s /3ia5(raori Tas Upas cti/Ti-
j

/3ia5<rn<rii/ tj f/>j/oraTj /vi Beta ^ajtj


NOT' ^otrets. Id. ibid.
236 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [cHAP.

with they were overtaken through human infirmity : he


believed that God
of his merciful goodness would pass by
those slips, and that such after-reckonings as these should

give no stoppage to the present bestowing of those holy


rewards upon the children of the promise. " 25 Therefore
the divine Bishop," saith our " asketh those
author, things
which were promised by God, and are grateful to him, and
without doubt will be granted; thereby as well manifesting
his own good disposition unto God, who is a lover of the

good, as declaring like an interpreter unto them that be


present the gifts that shall befall to such as are holy."
He further also addeth, that " the Bishops have a
separating power, as the interpreters of God's judgments,"
according to that commission of Christ, Whose sins ye remit,
they are remitted unto them ; and whose ye shall retain,
they are retained: and 251 Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon
earthy shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt
loose upon earth, shall be loosed in heaven. Now, as in
the use of the keys the schoolmen following St Jerome do
account the minister to be the interpreter only of God's
judgment, by declaring what is done by him in the binding
or loosing of men's sins ; so doth this author here give them
" 252
power only to separate those that are already judged
of God," and, by way of "
253
and convoy, to bring declaration
in those that are beloved of God, and to exclude such as are
ungodly." And if the power which the ministers have received

by the foresaid commission do extend itself to any further


real operation upon the living, Pope Gelasius will deny that
like manner unto the dead; because
it
may be stretched in
that Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth.
Christ saith,
" 254 He
saith, upon earth; for he that dieth bound is no-
where said to be loosed." " 255 That which a man
And,
250 252
OVKOVV 6 Seios iepdpws e^atTel TO. Toi>s KCKpifievovs Oeoi /con-' dfciav
OetwouJs eirriyyeXfieva., /ecu <fri\a 6etp, KCLL d<popi6vT(av. Dionys. ut supra.
TravTcos BwprjQrjaro/JLeva, KOL TO T^S oi/ceias
TOUS re 6eo^)iXeis irpo&iejjLevov, /cat TOUS
dyaQoeidovs ejretos eTrioei/ci/i/s TO> <pi\a-
dtieovs dTroK\i)povvTO<s. Id. ibid.
ya6a> 0ew, /cal TOIS Trapovcriv eKfyavropi-
Super terrain, inquit; nam in hac
254
KWS e[JL(paivwu TO. ToTs OCTIOIS eero/xei/a

fiiapa. ot/TO) KOI Ttrs d<popi<TTiK.ds eyovaiv ligatione defunctum nusquam dixit ab-
oi lepdp^ai 8vvd/nei<i, ws K(f>avTopiKoi solvi. Gelas. in Comment, ad Faustum.
255
Ttov fieiaov
oiKniw[jia.Tiov, &C. Id. ibid. Quod manens in corpore non rece-
251
Vide Eucholog. Gra>c. fol. 151. b. perit, consequi exutus carne non poterit.
et 152. a. Leo, Epist. LXXXIX. vel xci. ad Theodor.
VII.]
OF rilAVEK 1'OK THE DEAD. 237

remaining in his body hath not received, being unclothed of


his flesh he cannot obtain," saith Leo.
Whether the dead
received profit by the prayers of the

living, was
a question in the Church.
still Maximus, in his
Greek Scholies upon the writer of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy,
wisheth us to "- 56 mark, that even before" that writer's " time
this doubt was questioned." Among the questions wherein
Dulcitius desired to be resolved by St Augustine, we find
" 257 Whether the
this to be one: offering that is made for
258
the dead did avail their souls
any thing?" Many "did
say to this, that if herein any good were to be done after
death, how much rather should the soul itself obtain ease
for itself by its own confessing of her sins there, than that
for the ease thereof an oblation should be procured by other
men." The like also is noted by Cyril, or rather John,
" 259 knew MANY who said thus:
Bishop of Jerusalem, that he
What profit doth the soul get that goeth out of this world,
either with sins or not with sins, if you make mention of
it in
prayer?" And by Anastasius Sinaita, or Nicaenus:
" 260
Some do doubt, saying that the dead are not profited
by the oblations that are made for them." And, long after
them, by Petrus Cluniacensis, in his treatise against the fol-
lowers of Peter Bruse, in France: "
261
That the good deeds
of the livingmay profit the dead, both these heretics do
deny, and some Catholics also do seem to doubt." Nay, in
the West, not the profit only, but the lawfulness also of
these doings for the dead was called in question ; as partly

may be collected by Boniface, Archbishop of Mentz's con-

sulting with Pope Gregory, about 730 years after the birth

56
Kctl <rtj[JLei(a<rai,
on Koi Trpo CLVTOV Ti ft!<eXeiTu
e/Tfj6rj TO airopov TOVTO. Maxim. Schol. TOvSe TOV Koarfiov, tj ov
in Eccles. Hierarch. cap. 7 edv eiri T/ irpoaev-
257 Utrum oblatio quae fit pro quiescen- Cateches. v.
X*/s fjivi]ftove\>r\Te ; Cyrill.
tibus, aliquid eorum conferat animabus ? Mystagogic.
260
Augustin. ad Dulcit. Quaest. n. 'A/j.(pi(3d\\ov<Ti Ttvcs Xeyoi/T69, OTI
258 Ad OVK (a(pe\ovvTai ol veKpol etc Ttav yivop.e-
quod multi dicunt, Quod si

aliquis beneficii in hoc locus possit vtav arvvdfceiav virep aiiTiav. Anastas. in
esse post mortem, quanto magis sibi p. 540, edit. Graeco-Lat.
261
anima ferret ipsa refrigeria, sua per se Quod bona vivorum mortuis prod-
illicconfitendo peccata, quam in eorum esse valeant, et hi haeretici negant, et qui-

ret'rigerium ab aliis oblatio procuratur. dani etiam Catholici dubitare videntur.


Ibid. Petr. Cluniac. Epist. contra Petrobrusia-
59
OToa ynp TroXXoi/s TOVTO Xt'yofrasj nos.
238 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

of our Saviour, " 262


Whether it were lawful to offer oblations
for the (which he should have no reason to do, if
dead,"
no question had been made thereof among the Germans) ;
and is plainly delivered by Hugo Etherianus, about 1170
" 263 I know that
years after Christ, in these words: many
are deformed with vain opinions, thinking that the dead are
not to be prayed for, because that neither Christ nor the
Apostles that succeeded him have intimated these things in
the Scriptures. But they are ignorant that there be many
things, and those exceeding necessary, frequented by the holy
Church, the tradition whereof is not had in the Scriptures ;
and yet they pertain nevertheless to the worship of God,
and obtain great strength." Whereby it may appear that
this practice wanted not opposition even then, when in the

Papacy it was advanced unto its greatest height. And now


it is high time that I should pass from this article unto

the next following.

OF LIMBUS PATRUM, AND CHRIST'S DESCENT


INTO HELL.
HERE doth our Challenger undertake to prove against
" that there is a Limbus " that
us, not only Patrum," but
our Saviour" also " descended into to deliver the hell,
ancient Fathers of the Old Testament; because, before
his none ever entered into heaven."
passion, That there
was such a thing as Limbus Patrum, I have heard it said;
but what it is now, the doctors vary, yet agree all in this,
that Limbus it may well be, but Limbus Patrum sure it is
" Whether it were distinct from that
l
not. place in which
262 obeuntibus quoque consuluisse ditioex scripturis non habetur; nihilo
pj. o

dignosceris, si liceat oblationes offerre.


tamen minus ad cultum Dei pertinent,
Gregor. n. vel in. Epist. ad Bonifac. in
et vigorem maximum obtinent. Hug.
Tomis Conciliorum. Etherian. de Animar. Regress, ab Infer,
263
Scio plerosque vanis opinionibus de- cap. 13.
formari, putantes non esse orandum pro
1
An ab eo loco distinctus fuerit, in quo
mortuis; eo quod neque Christus neque nunc infantes sine baptismo de vita dece-
apostoli ejus successores haec scriptis in- dentes recipi creduntur, theologi dubi-
timaverint. Nesciunt quidem illi plura tant; nee quicquam de re dubia
est

esse, ac persumme necessaria, quse temere pronunciandum. Jo. Maid. Com-


sancta ecclesia frequentat, quorum tra- mentar. in Luc. xvi. 22.
VIII.]
OF MM BUS PA RUM.
'I
1

the infants that depart out of this life without baptism are
now believed to be received, the divines do doubt ; neither
is there any thing to be rashly pronounced of so doubtful
a matter," saith Maldonat the Jesuit. The Dominican
Friars, that wrote against the Grecians at Constantinople,
in the year that " 2 into thisLimbus the holy
1252, resolve,
Fathers before the coming of Christ did descend; but now
the children that depart without baptism are detained there :"
so that in their judgment that which was the Limbus of
fathers is now become the Limbus of children. The more
common opinion is, be two distinct places, and
that these
that the one is appointed for unbaptized infants, but the
other " 3 now remaineth void, and so " 4 shall remain, that
11

it
may bear witness as well of the justice as of the mercy
of God." If you demand, how it came to be thus void
and emptied of the old inhabitants, the answer is here
" That our Saviour descended into hell"
given, purposely
" to deliver" from hence " the ancient Fathers of the Old
Testament." But " 5
hell is one thing, I ween," saith
" Abraham^
Tertullian, and bosom," where the Fathers
of the Old Testament rested, "another;" " 6 neither is it
to be believed that the bosom of Abraham, being the habita-
tion of a secret kind of rest, was any part of hell," saith
St Augustine. To say, then, that our Saviour descended
into hell to of the Old Testa-
deliver the ancient Fathers
ment out of Limbus Patrum, would by this construction
prove as strange a tale as if it had been reported, that
Caesar made a voyage into Britain to set his friends at liberty
in Greece.
" before Christ's
Yea, but passion none ever entered
into heaven," saith our
Challenger. The proposition that

2
In quern (Limbum) ante adventum Dei. Hen. Vicus, de Descensu Christi
Christ! sancti patres descendebant : nunc ad Infer, sect. 41. Vide Abulens. Para-
vero pueri, qui absque baptismo dece- dox, v. cap. 188.
dunt, sine pcena sensibili detinentur. 5
Aliud enim inferi, ut puto, aliud
Tractat. contra Graec. in Tomo auctorum
quoque Abraham sinus. Tertull. advers.
a P. Steuartio edit. p. 565. Marcion. lib. iv. cap. 34.
3
Nunc vacuus remanet. Bellar. de 6
Non utique sinus ille Abrahae, id est,
Purg. lib. ii. cap. 6.
*
secretae cujusdam
quietis habitatio, aliqua
Manet autem, manebitque, licet va-
pars inferorum esse credenda est. Au-
cuus, hie infernus ; ut testimonium per-
gustin. Epist. 99. ad Evodium.
hibeat turn justitiae turn misericordi<c
240 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

Cardinal Bellarmine taketh upon him to prove, where he


handleth this controversy, is, " 7 that the souls of the godly
were not in heaven before the ascension of Christ." Our
Jesuit, it seemeth, considered here with himself, that Christ
had promised unto the penitent thief upon the cross, that
not before his ascension only, but also before his resur-
rection, even *that day he should be with him in paradise;
9
that is kingdom of heaven as the Cardinal
to say, in the ;

10
himself doth prove, both by the authority of St Paul
making paradise and the third heaven to be the selfsame

thing, and by the testimony of the ancient expositors of


the place. This, belike, stuck somewhat in our Jesuit's
stomach, who being loth to interpret this of his Limbus

Patrum, as "others of that side had done, and to maintain


that paradise, instead of the third heaven, should signify
the third or the fourth hell, thought it best to shift the
matter handsomely away Tby taking upon him to defend,
that not before Christ's ascension, lest that of the thief
should cross him, but before his passion none ever entered
into heaven ; but if none before our Saviour's passion did
ever enter into heaven, whither shall we say that Elias
did enter? ScriptureThe assureth
up us that he went
into heaven, 2 Kings ii. 11 ; and of this Mattathias put his
sons in mind upon his death-bed, that Elias being zealous
and fervent for the law, was taken up into heaven. Elias
and Moses both, before the passion of Christ, are described
to be I3 in glory: 14 Lazarus is carried by the angels into
a place of comfort, and not of imprisonment: in a word,
15
all the Fathers accounted themselves to be strangers and
pilgrims in this earth, seeking for a better country, that
16
is, an heavenly, as well as we do; and therefore having
ended their pilgrimage, they arrived at the country they

7
Quod aniiYuc piorum non fuerint in sect. 41.
p. 129. Vide Thorn, in part,
ccelo ante Christ! ascensionem. Bellarm. in. Summ. Quaest. LII. Art. 4. ad 3.

de Christ, lib. iv. cap. 11. et Lyranum in Luc. xxiii. 43.


8 12
Luke xxiii. 43. 'HXtas ev T> jj\a5crai %fj\ov vofiov
9
Vera ergo expositio est Theophylacti, dve\r\(^)Qt] eajs eis TOV ovpavov. 1 Maccab.
Ambrosii, Bedae, et aliorum, qui per ii. 58.
13
paradisum intelligunt regnum coelorum. Luke ix. 31.
14
Bellarm. de Sanct. Beatit. lib. i. cap. 3. Luke xvi. 22, 25.
10 15
2 Cor. xii. 2, 4. Hebr. xi. 13, 14, 16.
11 16
Henr. Vic. de Descens. ad Infer. Hebr. xiii. 14.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PATRUM.

17
for, we; they
as believed to be saved
well as
sought
through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as
18 19
we; they lived by that faith, as well as we; they died
20
in Christ, as well as we; they received remission of sins,

imputation of righteousness, and the blessedness arising


therefrom, as well as we and the mediation of our Saviour ;

being of that present efficacy that it took away sin and


brought in righteousness from the very beginning of the
world, it had virtue sufficient to free men from the penalty
of loss as well as from the penalty of sense, and to bring
them unto him in whose 21 presence is fulness of joy, as
22 & there
to deliver them from the place of torment, where
is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The first that ever assigned a resting place in hell to


the Fathers of the Old Testament, was, as far as we can
find, Marcion the heretic,
24
who " determined that both
kind of rewards, whether of torment or of refreshing, was
appointed in hell for them that did obey the law and the
prophets." Wherein he was gainsaid by such as wrote
against him, not only for making that the place of their
eternal rest, but also for lodging them there at all, and
imagining that Abraham's bosom was any part of helL
This appeareth plainly by the disputation, set out among
theworks of Origen, betwixt Marcus the Marcionite and
Adamantius the defender of the Catholic cause; who, touch-
a
ing the parabolical history of the rich man and Lazarus
in the sixteenth of St Luke, are brought in reasoning after
this manner: " 2*
Marcus. He saith that Abraham is in

17
Acts xv. 11. (quod olim in S. Irenaei Coenobio Lugdu-
18
Habak.ii.4; Rom. i.
16, 1J. nensi,hodie in publica Cantabrigiensis
19
1 Thess. iv. 16. Academiae Bibliotheca asservatur) histo-
20
Rom. iv. 69 ; Gal. iii.
8, 9. ric huic praemittitur ista praefatio : EITTC
81 22
Psalm xvi. 11. Luke xvi. 28. e Kai e-repav ira/oa/SoXrjV. Dijcit autem
23
Matt. viii. 11, 12. aliam parabolam. Cui similis etiam in
24
Sed Marcion aliorsum cogit, scilicet Missali Romano (feria 5 post Dominicam
utramque mercedem Creatoris, sive tor- 2 Quadragesimae) legebatur, Dixit Jesus
menti, sive refrigerii, apud inferos deter - discipulis suis parabolam hanc. Verum
minet eis positam qui legi et prophetis in Missali reformato duae postremae voces
obedierint ; Christi vero et Dei sui cceles- sublatae nuper sunt.
tem definiat sinum et portum. Tertul. 26
Ma'/o/cos. 'Ev TO) cidy elirev elvai TOV
lib. iv. cont. Marcion. cap. 34. Vide evTfj /3a<ri\eta TU>V ovpavwv.
etiam lib. iii. cap. 24. os. Ai/oyj/toOi OTI ev TW ady
25
In D. Bezae Graeco-Latino evangeli- Xe'yet TOV 'Aftpau/m. Map/c. ATTO TOV
orum venerandae vetustatis exemplari, <rvvo[Jii\elv avTto TOV TrXouaioi/, 5et/ci/ui/Tat
Q.
242 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

hell, kingdom of heaven. Adamantius. Read


and not in the
whether he that Abraham was in hell.
saith Marc. In
that the rich man and he talked one to the other, it

appeareth that they were together. Adamant. That they


talked one with another, thou hearest; but the great gulf

spoken of, that thou hearest not. For the middle space
between heaven and earth he calleth a gulf. Marc. Can
a man therefore see from earth unto heaven
? it is
impos-
sible. Can any man eyes behold from
liftingthe up his

earth, or from hell rather see into heaven? If not, it is

plain that a valley only was set betwixt them. Adamant.


Bodily eyes use to see those things only that are near,
but spiritual eyes reach far. And it is manifest, that they
who have here put off their body do see one another with
the eyes of their soul. For mark how the Gospel doth say
that he lifted up his eyes. Toward heaven one useth to
liftthem up, and not toward the earth." In like manner
doth 27 Tertullian also retort the same place of Scripture
against Marcion, and prove that it maketh a plain difference
between hell and the bosom of Abraham. For it affirmeth,
saith " both that a is betwixt
he, great deep interposed
those regions, no passage from either
and that it suffereth
side. Neither could the rich man have lifted up his eyes,
and that afar off, unless it had been unto places above him,
and very far above him, by reason of the mighty distance
betwixt that height and that depth." Thus far Tertullian ;
28
who, though he come short of Adamantius, in making

O/JLOV oj/Tcs. 'AoafJiavT. To 6/itAetj/ TTJOOS /cat OVK eis T^V yrjv. Orig. Dial. II. cont.

aAArj Aovs fj/covo-as,TO oe Xeyofjitvov -^dor/ma Marcion.


27 hac ipsa scriptura
/j.eya OVK ij/couaas* TO yap ovpavov Kai Respondebimus, et

TT/S y?/s TO fJLe<rov ydfffJLa Aeyet Map*. revincente oculos ejus, quae ab infernis
AVVO.TO.I ovv TIS ctTro yf/s ecos ovpavov discernit Abrahae sinum pauperi aliud :

bpau ;
dovvaTOv. eira'/oas TOUS 6(pQa\- enim inferi, ut puto, aliud quoque Abrahae
fiovs avTOv iociv ovvarai Tts oVo ytjs, sinus. Nam et magnum ait intercedere

17 fj.d\\ov CCTTO TOV adov eh TOV ovpavov regiones istas profundum, et transitum

opav ;
el /oj SijXov oVt ff)dpay% r\v ev /xecrw utrinque prohibere. Sed nee allevasset
avTcav. 'AdafJiavT. Oi crw/naTLKoi 6<pQa\- dives oculos, et quidem de longinquo,

fj.01 Ta eyyiorra JULOVOV Tre^vnacrtv opav' nisi in superiora, et de altitudinis longin-

ol 8e \lsv%iKoi eis yu^/cos dtroTeivov^ai. quo per immensam illam distantiam sub-
/cat orj\ov OTL TO <ru>p,a evTevdev airo6e- limitatis et profunditatis. Tert. advers.

fj.evoi, TOIS T^S \|/ux^ s o/JL/jLaa-iv bpuxrtv


Marcion. lib. iv. cap. 34.
28
aXXrjXous. LLpdVxes yap TTWS \eyei TO Earn itaque regionem sinum dico
etsi non ccelestem, sublimiorem
evayyeXiov, OTI eTra/oas TOUS 6<j)Qa\fJi.ovs Abrahae,
a\>Tov, eis TOV ovpavov Tre(pvKev eiraipetv, tamen inferis, interim refrigerium prsebi-
VIII.]
OF LIMRUS PATRUM. 2 1 :j

Abraham's bosom not to be any part of heaven,


although
no member at of hell, yet doth he concur with him in
all

this, that it is a place of bliss, and a common receptacle


wherein the souls of all the faithful, as well of the New as
of the Old Testament, do still remain in expectation of the
general resurrection ; which quite marreth the Limbus
Patrum of our Romanists, and the journey which they
fancy our Saviour to have taken for the fetching of the
Fathers from thence.
With these two doth St Augustine also join in his 99th

epistle toEuodius; concerning whose judgment herein, I will


not say the deceitful, but the exceeding partial dealing of
Cardinal Bellarmine can very hardly be excused " 29 Although :

1' " in his


Augustine, saith he, 99th epistle do seem to doubt
whether the bosom of Abraham, where the souls of the
Fathers were in times past, should be in hell or somewhere
else, yet in the 20th book of the City of God, the 15th

chapter, he affirmeth that it was in hell, as all the rest of


the Fathers have always taught." If St Augustine in that

epistle were of the mind, as he was indeed, that Abraham's


bosom was no part of hell, he was not the first inventor
of that doctrine; others taught it before him, and opposed
Marcion for teaching otherwise. 2vi/ re $v* ey^cy/ei/ft), alone
he went not, two there were at least, as we have seen, that
walked along with him in that same way. But for that
which he is said to have doubted of in one place, and to
have affirmed in another, if the indifferent reader will be
pleased but to view both the places, he shall easily discern
that the Cardinal looked not into these things with a single

eye. In his 99th epistle, 30 from that speech of Abraham,


Between you and us there a great gulf Jixed, he
is

maketh this inference " In ; these words it appeareth suf-

ficiently, as I think, that the bosom of so great happiness

turam animabus justorum, donee con- Bellarmin. de Christ, lib. iv. cap. 11, in
summatio rerum resurrectionem omnium fine.
30
plenitudine mercedis expungat. Id. ibid. Quanquam in his ipsis tanti magis-
29
Augustinus, etsi in Epist. xcix, tri verbis, ubi ait dixisse Abraham, Inter
ambigere videtur, an sinus Abraham, vos et nos chaos magnum firmatum est ;
ubi erant animae Patrum olim, in inferno satis, ut opinor, appareat non esse quan-
esset, an alibi; tamen lib. xx. de Civit. dam partem et quasi membrum infero-
Dei, cap. 15, arm-mat in inferno fuisse; rum tantae illius felicitatis sinum. Au-
ut ceteri omnes patres semper docuerunt. xcix.
gust. Epist.
Q2
244 ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

is not any part and member of hell." These seem unto


the Cardinal to be the words of a doubtful man ; with what
words then, when he is better resolved, doth he affirm the
matter? With these forsooth: " 31 If it do seem no absur-

dity to believe, that the old saints which held the faith of
Christ to come were in places most remote from the tor-
ments of the wicked, but yet in hell, until the blood of
Christ, and his descent into those places, did deliver them,
truly from henceforth the good and faithful, who are
redeemed with that price already shed, know not hell at
311."" If satis ut opinor apparet, " it appeareth sufficiently,
as I think," must import doubting, and si non absurde credi
" if it do seem no
videtur, absurdity to believe," affirming ;
I know not, I must confess, what to make of men's speeches.
The truth is, St Augustine, in handling this question,
discovereth himself to be neither of the Jesuit's temper nor
belief. He esteemed not this to be such an article of faith,
that they who agreed not therein must needs be held to be
of different religions as he doth modestly propound the
:

reasons which induced him to think that Abraham's bosom


was no member of hell, doth he not lightly reject the
so

opinion of those that thought otherwise, but leaveth it still


as a disputable point. " 32 Whether that bosom of Abraham
where the wicked rich man, when he was in the torments
of hell, the poor man resting, were either to
did behold
be accounted by the name of paradise, or esteemed to apper-
tain unto hell, I cannot readily affirm," saith he in one
" ^Whether Abraham were then
place; and in another:
at any certain place in hell, we cannot certainly define."
And in his 12th book de Genesi ad Literam: " ^I have

31
Si enim non absurde credi videtur, requiescentem pauperem vidit, vel para-
antiques etiam sanctos qui venturi Christi disi censendus vocabulo, vel ad inferos
tenuerunt fidem, locis quidem a tormentis pertinere existimandus sit, non facile

impiorum remotissimis, sed apud inferos dixerim. Id. Epist. LVII.


33
fuisse, donee eos inde sanguis Christi et Etenim apud inferos utrum in locis
ad ea loca descensus erueret ; profecto quibusdam fuisset jam Abraham, non
satis possumus definire. Id. in Psalm.
deinceps boni fideles, effuso illo pretio

jam redempti, prorsus inferos nesciunt, LXXXV.


34
donee etiam receptis corporibus bona re- Proinde, ut dixi, nondum inveni, et

cipiant quae merentur. Id. de Civit. Dei, adhuc quaaro, nee mihi occurrit inferos
lib. xx. cap. 15. alicubi in bono posuisse scripturam dun-
32
Utrum sinus ille Abrahae ubi dives taxat canonicam. Non autem in bono
impius, cum in tormentis essct inferni, accipiendum sinum Abrahae, et illam re-
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PATRUM. 245

not hitherto found, and I do yet enquire, neither do I


remember that the canonical Scripture doth any where put
hell in the good part. Now that the bosom of Abraham,
and that rest unto which the godly poor man was carried

by the angels, should not be taken in the good part, I know


not whether any good man can endure to hear; and there-
forehow we may believe that it is in hell, I do not see."
Where it may further also be observed, that St Augustine
doth here assign no other place to this godly poor man,
than he doth unto the souls of all the faithful that have
departed since the coming of our Saviour Christ ; the

question with him being alike of them both, whether the


place of their rest be designed by the name of hell or para-
dise. Therefore he saith, " I ^confess I have not yet found
that it is called hell where the souls of just men do rest."
And " ^How much more after this life that
again: may
bosom of Abraham be called paradise, where now there is

no temptation, where there is so great rest after all the


griefs For neither is there wanting there a
of this life?

proper kind of light, and of its own kind, and doubtless


great, which that rich man out of the torments and dark-
ness of hell, even from so remote a place, where a great

gulf was placed in the midst, did so behold, that he might


there take notice of the poor man whom sometime he had

despised." And elsewhere expounding that place in the 16th


of St Luke, " 37 The bosom of Abraham," saith he, " is the
rest of the blessed poor, whose is the kingdom of heaven,
in which after this life they are received."
Bede in his commentaries upon the same place, and
Strabus in the ordinary gloss, do directly follow St Augustine
in this exposition ; and the Greek interpreter of St Luke,

quiem, quo ab angelis plus pauper ablatus Neque enim et lux ibi non est propria

est, nescio utrum quisquam possit audire ; qucedam et sui generis et profecto magna ;
et ideoquo modo cum apud inferos creda- quam dives de tormentis et tenebris
ille

mus esse, non video. Id. de Gen. ad Lit. inferorum, tarn utique de longinquo, cum
lib. xii. cap. 33. magnum chaos esset in medio, sic tamen
35
Quanquam et illud me nondum in- vidit, ut ibi ilium quondam contemptum
venisse confiteor, inferos appellatos, ubi pauperem agnosceret. Id. ibid. cap. 34.
37 Sinus Abrahae est beato-
justorum animae requiescunt. Id. ibid. requies
36 rum pauperum, quorum
Quanto magis ergo post hanc vitam est regnum cce-
ctiam sinus ille Abrahae paradisus dici lorum, in quo post hanc vitam recipiun-
potest, ubi jam nulla tentatio, ubi tanta tur. Id. Quaest. Evangel, lib. ii. cap.

requies post omnes dolores vitae hujus ? 38.


246 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

who wrongly beareth the name of Titus Bostrensis and


for proof thereof
Chrysostom, produceth the testimony of
38 " that the bosoms of
Dionysius Areopagita, affirming, by
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, those blessed resting-places are
designed which do receive the just unto their never-fading
and most blessed perfection." The words that he hath
relation unto be these, in the seventh chapter of the Eccle-
siastical " 39 The bosoms of the blessed
Hierarchy: patriarchs
and of all the rest of the saints are, as I think, the most
divine and blessed resting-places, which do receive all such
as are like unto God into that
never-fading and most blessed
perfection that is therein." Hitherto appertain those pas-
in St Ambrose: "
into the bosom of Jacob;
40
Come
sages
that as poor Lazarus did in the bosom of Abraham, so thou
also mayest rest in the
tranquillity of the Patriarch Jacob.
For the bosom of the Patriarchs is a certain retiring-place
of everlasting rest." " 41 We shall
go where holy Abraham
openeth his bosom to receive the poor, as he did receive
Lazarus ; in which bosom they do rest who in this world
have endured grievous and sharp things." " 42 Into paradise
is an ascent, into hell a descent. Let them descend," saith
" And
he, quick into hell. therefore poor Lazarus was by
the angels lifted up into Abraham's bosom." " 43 Behold that
poor man abounding with all
good things, whom the blessed
rest of the holy Patriarch did " 44
compass about." Lazarus,
lying in Abraham's bosom, enjoyed everlasting life."

38
Ko\7roi/e r5e TOV 'Afipad/uL, KOI TOV 41
Ibimus ubi sinum suum Abraham
ccK, Kai TOV 'Ia/ctJ/3, 6 Atoi/ouo-ios 'Ape- sanctus expandit, ut suscipiat pauperes,
TCCS fiaKapias A?jets 0Tj<rt T sicut suscepit et Lazarum ; in quo sinu

VTToSexofJLGvas TOUS ^i/caious eis T-i\v avTtov requiescunt qui in hoc seculo gravia at-
Kai fjLaKapicaTdTtjv TeAeiaxriv. Tit.
dyj//oa) que aspera pertulerunt Id. de Bono
Bostr. in fin. cap. 16 Lucae. Mortis, cap. 12.
39 42
Ko\7Tot de eiaiv, o>s 61/JLai, TtJov p.a.Ka- In paradisum ascenditur, hi infer-

picav iraTpiapywv Kai T>V \onrG>v dyiwv num descenditur. Descendant, inquit,
diravTiav, ai QeioTaTai Kai /ia/cap terra t in infernum viventes. Ideoque Lazarus
X7^ei5, al Tou? 0eoei5et5 viroSeypfievai pauper per angelos in Abrahae sinum est
jrai/Tas eis Ttjj/ ev auTals dyi'ipco Kai /na- elevatus. Id. in Psalm, xt^viii.
43
Kapimrdriiv TeXeitoanv. Dionys. Eccles. Vide ilium pauperem bonis om-
Hier. cap. 7- nibus abundantem, quern sancti patri-
40
Veni in gremium Jacob; ut sicut archae requies beata circumdabat. Id.
Lazarus pauper in Abrahas sinu, ita etiam ibid.
tu in Jacob patriarchae 44
tranquillitate re- Lazarus, in Abraham sinu recumbens,
quiescas. Sinus enim patriarcharum re- vitam carpebat aeternam. Id. in Psalm,
cessus quidam est quietis asternae. Am- cxviii. Serm. HI.
bros. Orat. de Obitu Valentiniani Imp.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PAT RUM. 247

St Chrysostom, or whosoever else was the author of that

homily touching the rich man and Lazarus, upon those


words of the text, that the rich man lifting up his eyes
beheld Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, moveth this question:
" Lazarus did not the rich man," as well as
"Why see
the rich man is said to see Lazarus? and giveth this answer
" because 46 he that is in the
thereunto, light doth not see
him that standeth in the dark; but he that is in the dark
beholdeth him that is in the light;" taking it for granted
that Abraham's bosom was a place of light, and not of dark-
ness. He that wrote the homily upon the sentence of
that Psalm, What man is he that would have life, and
desireth to see good days? who is commonly also, though
not rightly, accounted to be Chrysostom, goeth further,
" 47
and saith, that the rich man lifted up his eyes unto
heaven out of the place of torments, and cried unto Father
Abraham:" yea, he expressly affirmeth there that " 48 the
blessed poor man did go unto heaven, and the rich man
covered with purple did remain in hell." Which agreeth
well with that undoubted saying of St Chrysostom himself:
" 49
Lazarus, who was worthy of heaven and the kingdom
that is there, being full of sores, was exposed to the tongues
of dogs, and strove with perpetual hunger." And with that
which he writeth elsewhere ; that " w after famine and sores
and lying in the porch, he enjoyed that refreshing which
" 51
is impossible to be expressed by speech," even unspeak-
able good things." Whereunto may be added that collection
of his out of the words of our Saviour, Many shall come

45
Atct fin Act^o/oos el&e TOV
T'L yap et dives purpura tectus mansit in inferno.
TT\ov(riov o kv TU> <j>wri VTrdp-^wv
; eiretdrj Ibid.
TOV ev TIO o~KOTei e<TTu)Ta ov /SXeTrei, ccXX' 49
Keu Aaapos fiev, b TWV ovpavwv
t ev rut (TKOTei TOV ev TU> (putTL OVTO. bpa. agios Kal TVS /SafftXetas T^S e/cel, *i\Ka>-
Chrysost. Homil. in Divit. et Lazar. Tom. ^nei/os Tats
TOOV Kvvtav irpoeKeiTO y\(OT-
v. edit. Savil. p. 730. Tais, Xt/ioi fiaxofievoy 6itji/e/cei. Chrysost.
46 E tenebris autem quae sunt in luce lib. i. de Provident, ad Stagir. Tom,, vi.
tuemur: Quod contra facere in tenebris edit. Savil. p. 96.

e luce nequimus. Lucret. de Rer. Nat. 50 MeTa TOV XI/JLOV KOI Ta e'Xcrj Kal TTJV
lib. iv. ev Tta TTvXcavi K.aTa.K\unv , TTJS d-Tropp^TOv
47 Erexit oculos in coclum de loco tor- e/c6tyjs oj/6<rea)s Kal ovoe Xdyw ep/j.r]vev-
Id. in illud,
mentorum, et clamavit ad patrem Abra- Qrjvai dwafJievii? /nerel^e.
ham. Homil. in illud, Psalm, xxxiii. Intrate per angust. Port. Tom. v. edit.

Quis est homo. Opera Chrysost. Tom. Savil. p. 179.


61
i. Toil/ diroppi')Tiov dyaQwv d-TroXavovTn.
18
Beatus pauper migravit ad ceelum, Id. p. 180.
248 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

from and west, and shall sit down with Abraham,


the east
and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, Matth.
52
viii. i], that this
kingdom is designed here by a new term
of the " bosom of Abraham," and the " 53 consummation
of all good" called by the name of the " bosoms of the
Patriarchs."
St Basil, in his Sermon of Fasting, placeth Lazarus in
" M Dost not thou see " how
paradise :
Lazarus," saith he,
he entered by fasting into paradise ?" And the ancient com-
piler of the Latin sermon translated from thence, frameth
this exhortation accordingly: "
55
Let us therefore use this

way, whereby we may return unto paradise. Thither is

Lazarus gone before us."


Asterius, Bishop Amasea, of
" 56
placeth him in a sweet and joyous state;" Cyril, Bishop
of Alexandria, in " 57
"in
unexpected delights;" Salvianus,
bliss" and "everlasting wealth." " 58 The poor man," saith
"
he, bought bliss with beggary the rich man, punishment ;

with wealth. The poor man, when he had just nothing,


bought everlasting riches with penury." Gregory Nazianzen
" 59 was enriched with refreshment in the bosoms
saith, he
of Abraham," that are so much to be " 60 desired." Pru-
dentius, in his poetical vein, describeth him to be there
"
hedged about with flowers," as being in the garden of
" "
paradise," even in the same paradise wherein pure
souls" do now rest, since the ascension of Christ; for thus
he writeth :

62 57
Toi TOUS /coXirows 'Af3padfi aVTi TTJS '0 fJiev

/3ao-iXeiccs elirelv. Id. in Matth. Homil. ais' 6 He T darvin'}Q<a<s, ev (f)\oyl


xxvi. edit. Graec. xxvu. Latin. .
Cyril. Alexandr. Homil.
53
'O yap TOUS TraTpidpyas davfjid^wv, Paschal, n.
58
Kal \fj%iv dyaQSnv TOI/S e/cetvtoy /coXTrovs Pauper beatitudinem emit mendici-
KaXiav, &C. Ibid. tate ; dives supplicium facultate. Pauper
54
TOV Ad^apov, irius Sid
Oi/x bpa<3 cum penitus nil haberet, emit aeternas di-
vrjaTeiai eiarjXQev eis TOV Trap d&eiarov ;
vitias egestate. Salv. Missal, lib. iii. ad
Basil. Homil. i. de Jejunio. Eccles. Cathol. advers. Avaritiam. Prior
55
Utamur ergo et nos hac via, qua etiam sententia habetur apud auctorem
rediri ad paradisum potest, &c. llluc Serm. ccxxvn. de Tempore, Tom. x.
praecessit Lazarus. Serm. de Jejunio, Oper. Augustini.
59
Zenoni Veronensi perperam attributus. Aa'^a/009 crin^eTai, Kal irXovTel Tt]v
56 Kal TraTriQev- ev KoXTrots 'Appadfj. dvdirava-iv. Gregor.
T&o d' e/ceT fJLO'xQt'ja'avTL

TI Kal TTi/c/oias dvaar-^ofievw T//S evcrdpKov


Nazianz. Orat. xvi. de Pauper. Amore,

^w^s, yXu/ceia TIS Kal ev<f)paivov<ra rj ev- p. 262, edit. Graeco-Lat.


60 Toil/
6dSe airei/efiTjOj; /caTa'o-Tatrie. Asterius, opeKTwv 'Aftpadfi Ko\Trtav. Id.
in Homil. de Divit. et Lazaro. Orat. XLIV. in Pentecost, p. 714.
VIII.] OF LIMBUS PATRUM. 24-9

61
Sed dum resolubile corpus

Revocas, Deus, atque reforraas;


Quanam regione jubebis
Animam requiescere puram?
Gremio senis abdita sancti
Recubabit, ubi est Eleazer;
Quern floribus undique septum
Dives procul adspicit ardens.
Sequimur tua dicta, Redemptor,
Quibus atra e morte triumphans,
Tua per vestigia raandas
Socium crucis ire latronem.

Of Abraham, Jew Philo " 62


the having left writeth, that
this mortality,he was adjoined to God's people, enjoying im-
mortality, and made equal to the angels ;" even as our Saviour
speaketh of the children of the resurrection, Luke xx. 36. So
where Job saith, Naked came I out of my mother's womb,
and naked shall I return thither, the Greek schools expound
" 63
it thus
Thither,
:
namely, unto God, unto that blessed
11 " 64 unto the
end and rest; place that is free from sorrow."
Which the author of the Commentaries upon Job, ascribed
Thither will I go, " 65
to Origen, expresseth thus at large:
saith he, where are the tabernacles of the righteous, where
the glories of the saints are, where is the rest of the faithful,
where is the consolation of the godly, where is the inheritance
of the merciful, where is the bliss of the undefiled, where
is the
joy and consolation of such as love the truth. Thither
will I go, where is light and life, where is glory and jocund-
ness, where is joy and exultation, whence grief and heaviness

61
Prudent. Cathemerinwn, Hymn. x. ubi est immaculatorum beatitudo, ubi est
62
'Afipadfji e/cAi7ra)i/ TO. GftjTct, Trpotrri- veracium laatitia et consolatio. Illuc ibo,
Oerai TW 0eow Xoai, /ca/OTrou/uei/os d<j>Qap- ubi est lux et vita, ubi est gloria et jucun-
criav, taos dyycXois ye-yoi/eos. Philo in ditas, ubi est laetitia et exultatio, vel unde
lib. de Sacrific. Abelis et Cain, non procul aufugit dolor, gemitus, ubi ob-
tristitia et

ab initio. liviscuntur priores tribulationes has quae


63
Nimirum ad Deum ; ad ilium, in- sunt in corpore super terram. Illuc ibo,
quam, beatum finem et requietem. Catena ubi est tribulationum depositio, ubi est
Graec. in Job. cap. i. a P. Comitolo con- remuneratio laborum, ubi Abrahae sinus,
versa. ubi Isaac proprietas, ubi Israel familiari-
64
Eis TOV TOTTOV TOV irevBov? e\evQepov. tas, ubi sanctorum animse, ubi angelorum
Caten. MS. D. Augustini Lindselli. chori, ubi archangelorum voces, ubi Spiri-
65
lllo, inquit, ibo, ubi sunt tabernacula tus Sancti illuminatio, ubi Christi reg-
justorum, ubi sunt sanctorum gloriae, ubi num, ubi aeterni Dei Patris infecta gloria
est fidelium requies, ubi est atque beatus conspectus.
piorum con- Grig, in Job.
solatio, ubi est misericordium haercditas, lib. i.
250 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

and groaning fly away, where they forget the former tribu-
lations that they sustained in their body upon the earth.
Thither will I go, where there a laving aside of tribula-
is

tions, where there is a recompence of labours, where is the


bosom of Abraham, where the propriety of Isaac, where the
familiarity of Israel, where be the souls of the saints, where
the quire of angels, where the voices of archangels, where
the illumination of the Holy Ghost, where the kingdom of
Christ, where the endless glory and blessed sight of the
eternal God the Father." What difference, I pray you now,
is there betwixt this Limbus Patrum and heaven itself?

Of Abraham's bosom Gregory Nyssen writeth after this


manner: " 66 As by a certain abuse of speech we call a bay
of the sea an arm or bosom, so it seemeth to me that the
word doth signify the exhibition of those unmeasurable good
things by the name of a bosom ; into which good bosom or
bay all men that sail
by a virtuous course through this

present life, when they


from hence, put in their souls,
loose
as it were into a haven free from danger of waves and

tempests." another place: " 67 If one hearing of a


And in
it were a certain large
bosom, as bay of the sea, should
conceive the fulness of good things to be meant thereby,
where the Patriarch is named, and that Lazarus is therein,
he should not think amiss." True it is indeed that divers
of the doctors, who make Abraham's bosom to be a place
of glory, do yet distinguish it from heaven; but it is to
be considered withal, that they hold the same opinion in-
differently of the place whereunto the souls of all godly men
are received, as well under the state of the New as of the
Old Testament. For they did not hold, as our Romanists
do now, that Christ by his descension emptied Limbus, and
removed the bosom of Abraham from hell into heaven ; their
Limbus is now as full of Fathers as ever it was, and is

o\)v TI]V Troidv TOV ire\dyov9 Dialog, de Anima et Resurrect. Tom. n.


r
7repiypa<f)^v e/c KaTa.\pi'iaeta<i TWOS 6vo/j.d- Oper. p. 651.
67 Ko\7roj> otov Tivd
KO\TTOV, ovTta Sonel TU>V dfJ.eTpriTcav
%0/j.ev ydp a'/couo-as,
eKeivwv dyaQSiv TI}V evSei^iv b XcJyos Tip evpvyjtopov TreXayousr 'jrepio^riv, TO Ttav
TOV KO\TTOV diaa"iifJLaiveiv 6v6ju,aTi, to irav- dyaQwv TrXrj/otofta, a>s eiriavofjida-Qr) 6
Tes ol Si dpeTrjs TOV irapovTa. ?>ia.ir\eov- HaTpiapxri?, OVK av apdpToi,
vorjeras Tis,
-fes (3iov, OTCLV evTevQev diraipwtriv, a>'a"7re/o ev <a KOL Aa'a/oos yiveTai. Id. Tract. II.
ev dKa.TaK\ei<TT(a \ifievi TU> dyaOw KoXTrw de Psalmor. Inscript. cap. 6; Tom. i.
Tots \lsvxds evopul^ovTat. Greg. Nyssen. Oper. p. 304.
VIII.] OF LIMBUS PATRUM. 251

the common receptacle wherein they suppose all good souls


to remain until the general resurrection, before which time

they admit neither the Fathers nor us unto the possession


of the kingdom of heaven. " 68 For
Abraham," saith Gregory
" and the other
Nyssen, Patriarchs, although they had a
desire to see those good things, and never left seeking that

heavenly country, as the Apostle saith ; yet are they not-


withstanding that even yet in expectancy of this favour,
God having provided some better thing for us, according to
the saying of St Paul, that they without us should not be
made perfect" So Tertullian " lt appeareth to every wise :
lj

man that hath ever heard of the Elysian fields, that there
is some local determination, which is called Abraham's bosom,
to receive the souls of his sons, even of the Gentiles; he
being the father of many nations, that were to be accounted
of Abraham's family, and of the same faith wherewith
Abraham believed God, -under no yoke of the law/, nor in
the sign of circumcision. That region therefore do T call
the bosom of Abraham, although not heavenly, yet higher
than hell, which shall give rest in the mean season to the
souls of the righteous, until the consummation of things do
finish the resurrection of all with the fulness of reward."
And we have heard St Hilary say before, that " 70 all the
faithful, when they are gone out of the body, shall be re-
served by the Lord's custody for that entry into the heavenly

kingdom, being in the meantime placed in the bosom of


Abraham, whither the wicked are hindered from coming by

58
Kal yap 01 Trepi TOV 'Aftpad/j. iraT/oi- Abraham Deo credidit, nullo sub jugo
,TOV fiev loelv rd dyaQd Trjv ctri- legis, nee in signo circumciaionis. Earn
dvpiav ea")(ov, K<IL OVK itaque regionem sinum dico Abrahas, etsi
T<s Tr]V eiroupdviov TraT/ouSa, /ca6a)s <pij(riv non ccelestem, sublimiorem tanien inferis,
O GCTTOCTToAoS. ttXX' O/AWS kv TO> k\TTl^lV interim refrigerium praebituram animabus
trt TTJI; \dpiv eia-l, TOV Geou KpelTTov ri justorum, donee consummatio rerum re-
Trepi i]u.iav 7rpop\e\lraimevov, /caret TTJZ/ TOV surrectionem omnium plenitudine merce-
dis expungat. Tertullian. lib. iv. contra
TeXeia>6too-i. Id. de Hominis Opificio, Marcion. cap. 34.
70 Exeuntes de
cap. 22. corpore ad introitum
Unde apparet sapienti cuique qui
39
j
ilium regni coelestis per custodiam Domini
aliquando Elysios audierit, esse aliquam ;
h'deles omnes reservabuntur ; in sinu sci-
localem determinationem, quae sinus dicta ! licet interim Abrahaa collocati, quo adire
sitAbrahae, ad recipiendas animas filio- ]
impios interjectum chaos inhibet, quo-
rum ejus etiam ex nationibus, patris sci- usque introeundi rursum in regnum coe-
multarum nationum in Abrahae cen-
licet I lorum tempus adveniat. Hil. in Psal.
sum deputandarum, et eadem fide qua ct cxx.
252 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

the gulf interposed betwixt them, until the time of entering


" 71 The
into the kingdom of heaven do come." And again:
rich and the poor man in the Gospel do serve us for wit-
nesses; one of whom
angels did place in the seats of
the
the blessed and in Abraham's bosom, the other the region
of punishment did presently receive." " 72 For the day of
judgment is the everlasting retribution either of bliss or
pain ; but the time of death hath every one under his

laws, while either Abraham or punishment reserveth every


one unto judgment."
The difference betwixt the doctors in their judgment
concerning the bosom of Abraham, and the resting of the
ancient Fathers therein, we find noted in part in those

expositions upon the Gospel which go under the name of


Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, and Eucherius, Bishop of
" ^In
Lyons: that the rich man," say they, "did in hell
behold Abraham, this by some is thought to be the reason,
because all the saints before the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ are said to have descended into hell, although into
a place of refreshment. Others think that the place wherein
Abraham was did lie apart from those places of hell, situated
in places above, for which the Lord should say of that
rich man, that lifting up his eyes when he was in torments,
he saw Abraham afar off" The former of these opinions
is
by some of the doctors doubtfully, by others
delivered
more resolutely. Primasius setteth it down with St Augus-
tine's " 74 It seemeth that without it
qualification :
absurdity
may be believed." The author of the imperfect work upon
Matthew saith, that
(i T5
per ad venture the just did ascend into
71
Testes nobis evangelicus dives et disse dicuntur. Alii opinantur locum

pauper ; quorum unum angeli in sedibus ilium in quo Abraham erat, ab illis in
beatorum et in Abrahae sinu locaverunt, inferni locis seorsim in superioribus fuisse
alium statim poenae regio suscepit. Id. in constitutum, propter quod dicat Dominus
Psal. ii. de illo Divite, quod elevans oculos suos,
72
Judicii enim dies vel beatitudinis cum esset in tonnentis, vidit Abraham de
retributio est aeterna vel pcenae.
Tempus longe. Theophil. Antioch. Allegor. in
vero mortis habet unumquemque suis Johan. lib. iv. Eucher. Ludg. de Quaes-
legibus, dum ad judicium unumquemque tionib. Novi Testam. in Luca.
74
aut Abraham reservat aut poena. Id. ibid. Si non absurde credi videtur. Pri-
73 In
hoc quod apud infemum Abra- masius, lib. v. in Apocalyps. cap. xx.
hamum vidit, haec subesse a quibusdam secutus Augustinum, lib. xx. de Civit.
ratio putatur, quod omnes sancti ante ad- Dei, cap. 15.
ventum Domini nostri Jesu Christi etiam 75 Vis autem manifeste scire, quoniam
ad inferna, licet refrigerii locum, descen- ante Christum cceli si aperiebantur, iterum
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PATRUM. 253

heaven' before the coming of Christ ; yet that he doth " think
1

that no soul before Christ did ascend into heaven since Adam
sinned and the heavens were shut against him, but all were
detained in hell." " 76 as I do think," saith the Greek
And,
" even our
expositor of Zacharias's Hymn likewise, fathers,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the whole quire of the holy
prophets and just men, did enjoy the coming of Christ."
Of which coming to visit the Fathers in hell, 77 St Jerome,
78 79 80 81
Ruffinus, Venantius Fortunatus, Gregory, Julianus
82
Toletanus, and Eusebius Emissenus, as he is commonly
called, interpret that question propounded by the Baptist
unto our Saviour, ^Art thou he that should come, or look
we for another? which exposition is by 84 St Chrysostom
justly rejected as utterly impertinent and ridiculous. Ana-
stasius Sinaita affirmeth very boldly, that " all the souls, as
85

well of the just as the unjust, were under the hand of the
devil until Christ, descending into hell, said unto those that
were in bonds, Come forth ; and to those that were in durance,
Be at liberty." " For 8fi
he did not only," saith he in another
" dissolve the
place, corruption of the bodies in the grave,
but also delivered the captivity of the souls out of hell,
wherein they were by tyranny detained; and peradventure

claudebantur. Nam justi quidem forsitan 81


Julian. Toletan. lib. ii. contra Ju-
ascendebant in coelum ; peccatores autem daeos.
82
nequaquam. Ideo autem dixi forsitan, Euseb. Homil. in Evangel. Dominic.
ne quibusdam placeat etiam ante Christ! in. Adventus.
83
adventum justorum animas ascendere po- Matt. xi. 3 ; Luke vii. 19, 20.
84 xxxvi.
tuisse in ccelum. Alioqui nullam animam Chrysost. in Matt. xi. Horn,
ante Christum arbitror ascendisse in coe- edit. Graec. vel xxxvu. Latin.
5 TOW SiaftoXov
'Tiro
lum, ex quo peccavit Adam, et clausi TTJJ/ \f~ipa. virrip-

sunt ei coeli ; sed omnes in inferno deten- yov irdaai al fyvyai TWV dy'uav nai TWV
tas. Opus imperf. in Matt. Homil. iv. duapTtaXiav, e ov KareXdtov iv TU> aSrj
interOpera Chrysostomi. b X/OICTTO'S elire TOIS ei/ 6VoyzoTs, 'EeX0e-
76 Ut enim TOIS KaT\OfMVOl9, 'EXeU06p(>0TJTe.
arbitror, etiam patres nostri T6, KCtl

Abraham, Isaac, et Jacob, et totus chorus Anastas. Sinait. (al. Nicaen.) Quaest.
sanctorum vatum et justorum, Christi ad- CXTI.
ventu perfruiti sunt. Catena Graeca in 86
Ov yap P.OVOV TIJV TWV ffto/uaVwz/
Cantica utriusque Testament!, ab Ant. (frQopdv ev TU> rd<pu) SteXvtrev, a'XXa Kal
Carafa convers. Tom. i. Operum Theo- Ti]V TU>V \j/Vu)V aixfiaXwariav CK TOV adov
doreti, p. 729, edit. Colon. 15J3. direXvtrev, evOa Tvpavv^v-
KaTei^ovro
77 Hieron. Epist. CLI. ad Algas. Quaest. it.eva.if ?; fd^a ov Tvpavvoufievai, oXX'
i. et lib. ii. Commentar. in Matt. cap. xi.
78 Ruffin. in Exposit. Symboli. i?, 6 Sid TO
79
Ven. Fortunat. in Exposit. Symboli.
Gregor. lib. i. in Ezekiel. Homil. i. Anastas. Sinait. de Rect. Dogmatib.
et in Evang. Homil. vi. Orat. v.
254 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

not by tyranny neither, but for many debts, which being


paid, he that descended for their delivery brought back with
him a great And thus was hell spoiled, and " 87
captivity."
Adarn delivered from his griefs." Which is agreeable to that
which we read in the works of Athanasius, that " 88 the soul
of Adam was detained in the condemnation of death, and cried
continually unto the Lord; such as had pleased God, and
were justified in the law of nature, being detained together
with Adam, and lamenting and crying out with him :" and
" 89
that the devil, beholding himself spoiled, did bemoan him-
self, and beholding those that sometime were weeping under
him, now singing in the Lord, did rend himself."
Others are more favourable to the souls of the Fathers,
though they place them in hell ; for they hold them to have
been there in a state of bliss, and not of misery. Thus the
author of the Latin homily concerning the rich man and
Lazarus, which is commonly fathered upon Chrysostom, not-
90
withstanding he affirmeth that Abraham was in hell, and
that before the coming of Christ none ever entered into para-
dise; yet doth he acknowledge in the meantime that Lazarus
did remain there in a kind of paradise. For " 91 the bosom
of Abraham," saith he, " was the poor man's paradise." And
" 92
Some man may
again: say unto me, Is there a paradise
in hell I say this, that the bosom of
? Abraham is the truth
of paradise; yea, and I confess it to be a most holy para-
dise." So Tertullian, in the fourth book of his verses against

90
Simulque considerandum, quod A-
87 'Ei/
av-rfi 6 a'5tjs eer/cu\u0rj, ei/
o 'Aodp. TU>V oSvvwv d 7n]\\dyr). i
Id. in braham apud inferos erat; necdum enim
Hexamer. lib. vii. Christus resurrexerat, qui ilium in para-
38
T^s TOV 'Addft \J/ix*7 *" KaTadiKri disum duceret. Antequam Christus mo-
BavaTov KaTXO/j.evr)<i, Kai (3o(o<rris TT/OOS riretur, nemo in paradisum conscenderat,
TOV eavTrjs dewTTOTtjv oiaTraz/Tos,
(sive nisi latro. Rhomphasa ilia flammea et
Kai Ttav evapearTri(rdvT(av TOJ vertigo ilia claudebat paradisum. Non
poterat aliquis intrare in paradisum, quern
ffvyKaTe^ofJievwv TW 'Addfji, crvfi-
v6/j.u>,
Christus clauserat: latro primus cum
irevdovvTiov re Kai ffv/JL^o(aVTU)v. Athan. Christo intravit. Homil. in Luc; xvi.
de Salutar. Advent. Christi, advers. Apol- de Divite, Tom. n. Oper. Chrysostom.
linar. Latin.
89
Kai yap bpwv eavTov <rKv\ev6fi.evov,
91
Paradisus pauperis sinus erat Abra-
KareKOirrev eawrov' opfav 5e /cat TOUS hse. Ibid.
TTOTe icXatovTas 92 Dicat mihi aliquis, In inferno est
avrov vvv i/mXXoi/-
VTT'

Tas ej/ Ku/otw, Siepprjara-ev eavrov. Auctor paradisus ? Ego hoc dico, quia sinus
Serm. in Passion, et Crucem Domini, in- Abrahae paradisi veritas est ; sed et sanc-
ter Opera Athanas. tissimum paradisum fateor. Ibid.
VIII.]
OK LIMBUS PAT11UM.

Marcion, placeth Abraham's bosom under the earth, but in


an open and lightsome seat, far removed from the fire and
from the darkness of hell:
" Sub corpore terrso
In parte ignota quidam locus exstat apertus,
Luce 93 sua fretus; Abrahse sinus iste vocatur,
Altior a tenebris, longe semotus ab igne,
Sub terra tamen."

Yea, he maketh it to that which is


be one house with
eternal in the heaven, distinguished only from it as the outer

and the inner Temple, or the Sanctum and the Sanctum

Sanctorum, were in the time of the law, by the veil that


hung between which veil being rent at the Passion of Christ,
;

he saith these two were made one everlasting house :

" divisa et spatio, et ratione ligata


Tempore
Una dooms, quaravis velo partita videtur.
Atque adeo passo Domino velamine rupto,
Coelestes patuere plagae cselataque sancta;

Atque duplex quondam, facta est domus una perennis."

Yet elsewhere he maketh up the partition again, maintain-


ing very stiffly,
that the gates of u94 heaven" remain still shut

against all men until the end of the world come, and the day
" 95
of the last judgment. Only paradise" he leaveth open for
martyrs, as that other author of the Latin homily % seemeth also
97
to do; but the souls of the rest of the faithful he seques-

93
Confer locum ex Augustino, de Ge- sustinuerimus, statim in sinum Abrahae.
nesi ad Liter, lib. xii. cap. 34, supra cita- Habet et sanguis, habet et pax loca sua,
tum, p. 244. habet et paupertas martyrium suum, et
94
Nulli patet ccelum terra adhuc sal- egestas bene tolerata facit martyrium; sed

va, ne dixerim clausa. Cum transactione egestas propter Christum, non propter
enim mundi reserabuntur regna ccelorum. necessitatem. Homil. de Divite, inter
Tertull. de cap. 55.
Anima, Opera Chrysost.
07 Habes etiam de
95
Quomodo perpetua fortissima martyr paradiso a nobis li-

sub die passionis inrevelatione paradisi so- bellum, quo constituimus omnem animam
los illic commartyres suos vidit ; nisi quia apud inferos sequestrari in diem Domini.

nullis rhomphaea paradisi janitrix cedit, Tertul. de Anima, cap. 55. Omnes ergo
animae penes inferos? inquis. Velis ac
nisi qui in Christo decesserint ? Tota pa-
radisi clavis tuus sanguis est. Ibid. Vide nolis, et supplicia jam illic et refrigeria

etiam lib. de Resurrect. Carnis, cap. 43. habes, pauperem et divitem, &c. Cur
96
Si persecutio venerit, imitemur latro- enim non putes animam et puniri et foveri

nem si imitemur Lazarum. in inferis, interim sub exspectatione utri-


; pax fuerit,
Si martyrium fecerimus, statim intrabi- usque judicii in quadam usurpatione et
mus paradisum; si paupertatis po3nam
Candida ejus ? Ibid. cap. ult.
256 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

98
tereth into hell, there to remain in Abraham's bosom until
the time of the general resurrection. And to this part of
hell doth he
imagine Christ to have descended, not with
purpose to fetch the souls of the Fathers from thence,
(which is the only errand that our Romanists conceive he
had thither,) but ut illic patriarchas et prophetas compotes
sui faceret, " that he might there make the patriarchs and

prophets partakers of his presence.""


St Jerome saith, that " "our Lord Jesus Christ descended
into the furnace of hell, wherein the souls both of sinners
and of just men were held shut, that without any burning
or hurt unto himself he might free from the bonds of death
those that were held shut up" in that place; and that he
" 100
called the name of the Lord out of the lower-
upon
most when by the power of his divinity he descended
lake,
into hell; and having destroyed the bars of Tartarus," or
the dungeon of hell, " bringing from thence such of his as
he found there, ascended Conqueror up again." He saith
" 101 hell is the of and
further, that place punishments tortures,
in which the rich man that was clothed in purple is seen;
unto which also the Lord did descend, that he might let
forth those that were bound out of prison." Lastly :

" 102 The Son of


God," saith he, following Origen, as it

98 100
Quod si Christus Deus, quia ethomo, Invocavit ergo Redemptor noster
mortuus secundum scripturas et sepultus nomen Domini de lacu novissimo, cum
secundum easdem, hie quoque legi satis- in virtute divinitatis descendit ad inferos,
fecit, forma humanae mortis apud inferos et destructis claustris Tartari, suos quos
functus ; nee ante ascendit in sublimiora ibi reperit eruens, victor ad superos ascen-
coelorum, quam descendit in inferiora ter- dit. Id. lib. ii. in Lamentat. Jerem.

rarum, ut illic patriarchas et prophetas cap. iii.


101
compotes sui faceret; habes et regionem Infernus locus suppliciorum atque
inferum subterranean! credere, et illos cruciatuum est, in quo videtur dives pur-
cubito pellere, qui satis superbe non pu- puratus ; ad quern descendit et Dominus,
tentanimas fidelium inferis dignas ; servi ut vinctos de carcere dimitteret. Id. lib.
vi. in Esai. cap. xiv.
super Dominum, et discipuli super magis-
102
trum, aspernati si forte in Abrahae sinu Descendit ergo in inferiora terrse, et

exspectandae resurrectionis solatium car- ascendit super omnes ccelos Filius Dei, ut
pere. Ibid. cap. 55. non tantum legem prophetasque comple-
99
Dominus noster Jesus Christus ad ret, sed et alias quasdam occultas dispen-
fornacem descendit inferni, in quo clausae sationes, quas solus ipse novit cum Patre.
et peccatorum et justorum animae tene- Neque enim scire possumus quomodo et

bantur, ut absque exustione et noxa sui angelis, et his qui in inferno erant, san-
eos, qui tenebantur inclusi, mortis vinculis guis Christi profuerit ; et tamen quin pro-
liberaret. Hieronym. lib. i. in Daniel. fuerit nescire non possumus. Id. lib. ii,

cap. iii. in Ephes. cap. iv.


VIII.
I
OF I.IMBUS I'ATIU'.M.
257

" descended into the lower-


seemeth, too unadvisedly here,
most parts of the earth, and ascended above all heavens,
that he might not only fulfil the law and the prophets, but
certain other hidden dispensations also, which he alone doth
know with the Father. For we cannot understand how the
blood of Christ did profit both the angels and those that
were in hell; and yet that it did profit them we cannot be
ignorant." Thus far St Jerome touching Christ's descent into
the lowermost hell, which Thomas and the other schoolmen
will not admit that he ever came unto.
Yet this must they of force grant, if
they will stand
to the authority of the Fathers " 103
It remained," saith Ful-
:

" for the full


gentius, effecting of our redemption, that man
assumed by God without sin should thither descend, whither
man separated from God should have fallen by the desert of
sin; that is, unto hell, where the soul of the sinner was
wont be tormented, and to the grave, where the flesh
to
of the sinner was accustomed to be corrupted ; yet so, that
neither the flesh of Christ should be corrupted in the grave,
nor his soul be tormented with the pains of hell because :

the soul free from sin was not to be subjected to such

punishment ; neither ought corruption to taint the flesh


without sin." 104
And this he saith was done for this end,
" that
by the flesh of the just dying temporally, everlasting
lifemight be given to our flesh ; and by the soul of the just

descending into hell, the pains of hell might be loosed."


It is the saying of St Ambrose, that "
103
Christ being
void of sin when he descended
into the lowermost parts of

Tartarus, breaking the bars and gates of hell, called back


unto life out of the jaws of the devil the souls that were

Fulgent, ad Trasimund.
103 Restabat tamen ad plenum nostrae lib.
corruptio.
redemptionis effectum, ut illuc usque ho- iii.
cap. 30.
104 Hoc autem ideo factum
mo sine peccato a Deo susceptus descen- est, ut per

deret, quousque homo separatus a Deo morientem temporaliter carnem justi do-
peccati merito cecidisset ; id est, ad in- naretur vita aeterna carni, et per descen-

fernum, ubi solebat peccatoris anima tor- dentem ad infernum animam justi dolores
queri, et ad sepulchrum, ubi consueverat solverentur inferni. Ibid.

Expers peccati Christus, cum ad


105
peccatoris caro corrumpi ; sic tamen, ut
nee Christi caro in sepulchre corrumpe- Tartari ima descendens, seras inferni janu-
anima torque-
retur, nee inferni doloribus asque confringens, vinctas peccato animas,
retur quoniam anima immunis a pec-
: mortis dominatione destructa, e diaboli
cato non erat subdenda supplicio ; et faucibus revocavit ad vitam. Ambros. de
carnem sine peccato non debuit vitiare Mysterio Paschac, cap. 4.

R
258 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

bound with sin, having destroyed the dominion of death :"


and of Eusebius Emissenus, or Gallicanus, or whoever was
the author of the sixth Paschal Homily attributed to him,
that " 106
the Son of man, laying aside his body, pierced the
lowest and hiddenof Tartarus; but where he was
seats

thought have been detained


to among the dead, there bind-
death did he loose the bonds of the dead." "
ing Presently,
107
therefore,"" saith Caesarius, (in his third Paschal
Homily,
which is the same with the
of those that go under the
first

name of the former Eusebius), " the everlasting night of


hell at Christ's descending shined bright, the
gnashing of
the mourners ceased, the burthens of the chains were loosed,
the bursted bands of the damned fell from them. The tor-
menters astonished in mind were amazed, the whole impious
shop trembled together, when they beheld Christ suddenly
in their dwellings." So Arnaldus Bonaevallensis in his book
de Cardinalibus Operibus Christi, commonly attributed to
St Cyprian, noteth, that at that time " 108 there was a cessa-
tion from infernal torments;'" which by 109 Arator is thus more

amply expressed in verse :

pavidis resplenduit umbris


Pallida regna petens, propria quern luce coruscum
Non potuit fuscare chaos. Fugere dolores,
Infernus tune esse timet, nulluraque coercens
In se poena redit, nova tortor ad otia languet;
Tartara moesta gemunt, quia vincula cuncta quiescunt.
Mors ibi quid faceret, quo vitae portitor ibat?

St Augustine doth thus deliver his opinion touching


this matter: " 110 That Christ's soul came unto those places
wherein sinners are punished, that he might loose them from

106
Deposito quidem corpore imas atque in suis sedibus vidit. Ibid. Homil. i.

abditas Tartar! sedes Filius hominis pene- Caesarius Arelatens. de Pasch. Homil.
travit ; sed ubi retentus esse inter mortuos in.
putabatur, ibi vincula mortuorum ligata
108
Ab infernalibus tormentis cessatum
morte laxavit. Euseb. Homil. vi. de est. Arnald. Abb. Bonaevallis. Tract,
Pascha. de Unctione Chrismatis, in fine.
107 Confestim 109
igitur sterna nox infero- Arator. Historiae Apostolicae lib. i.
110
rum Christo descendente resplenduit, Christi animam venisse usque ad ea
siluit stridor lugentium ille, soluta sunt loca in quibus peccatores cruciantur, ut
onera catenarum, dirupta ceciderunt vin- eos solveret a tormentis, quos esse solven-
cula damnatorum. Attonitae mentis ob- dos occulta nobis sua justitia judicabat,
stupuere tortores ; omnis simul impia offi- non immerito creditur. August, de Ge-
cina contremuit, cum Christum nesi ad Literam, lib. xii. cap. 33.
repente
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PATRUM.

torments whom by
hidden justice he judged lit to he-
his
is not without
cause believed." " ln Neither did
loosed,
our Saviour, being dead for us, scorn to visit those parts,
that he might loose from thence such as he could not be

ignorant, according to his divine and secret justice, were


to be loosed." 112
But whether he loosed " all that he
found in those pains, or some whom he thought worthy of
that benefit, I yet enquire. For that he was in hell, and
bestowed this benefit upon some that did lie the pains in

thereof, I do not doubt." Thus did St Augustine write


unto Euodius, who enquired of him, whether " 113 our Saviour
"
loosed all from thence, and emptied hell ? which was in those
days a great question, and gave occasion to that speech of
" 114
Gregory Nazianzen : If he descend into hell, go thou
down with him," namely, in contemplation and meditation ;
" learn the of Christ's doings there, what the
mysteries
dispensation, and what the reason was of his double descent,"
to wit, from heaven unto earth, and from earth unto hell ;
" whether at his
appearing he simply saved all, or there
also What Clemens Alexandri-
such only as did believe."
ne's opinion was herein every one knoweth, that " 115 our
Lord descended for no other cause into hell but to preach
the Gospel;" and that 116 such as lived a good life before
the time of the Gospel, whether Jews or Grecians, " although

they were in hell and in durance, yet hearing the voice of

11
Nee ipsam tamen rerum partem *Av eis aSov nariri,
noster salvator mortuus pro nobis visitare Kai TO eKeltre TOU X/CHO-TOV /uverrij-

contempsit, ut inde solveret quos esse pia, Tts tj olnovofiia TT}S dnrXf)? KaTaftd-
solvendos secundum divinam secretam- trews, TIS 6 Xoyos* a'-rrXois crw^ei TTOI/TOS
que justitiam ignorare non potuit. Ibid, Tri<pavei<i, t; fcd/cei TOUS TucrTevcrawra*} ;

cap. 34. Greg. Nazianz. Orat. XLII. Quaest. n. in


112
Sed quia evidentia testimonia et in- Pasch.
15
femum commemorant et dolores; nulla Ei y' ouv o Kvpios Si' ovdev cTfpov
causa [occurrit, cur illo credatur venisse eis aSou KaTrjXQev, i; did TO evayyeXiara-

salvator, nisi ut ab ejus doloribus salvos aQaiy <a<rjrep KaTijXQev, &c. Clem. Alex.
faceret sed utrum omnes quos in eis in-
: Strom, lib. vi.
116
venit, an quosdam quos illo beneficio dig- AfjXov irov Kai TOUS C-KTOS VO/JLOV

nos judicavit, adhuc requiro. Fuisse tamen Sid n}v T^S </>wi///s (leg. <j>v-

eum apudinferos, et in eorum doloribus o/o0ciis /3e/3ta)KOTas, ei

constitutis hoc beneficium prsestitisse, non Kai aSov GTvypv oi/Tes Kai ev (frpov-
et>

dubito. Id. Epist. xcix. ad Euodium. pa, eiraKovcravTas TT;S TOV Kvpiov (pwvr/?,
113
Si omnes
inde solvit salvator, et eiTC Kai T^S auQcvTiKrjs el-re Kai T^S
sicut requirens scripsisti, exinanivit in- Sid Tail/ dirotTToXtov evepyovirt^, fi TOL-
ferna. Item : Si, ut quaerendo dicis, ex- yo<! eTTKrTpaffifjvai re xai
inaniti sunt inferi. Ibid. Ibid.
260 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

our Lord, either from himself immediately, or by the work-


ing of his Apostles, were presently converted and did believe/'
In a word, that 117 in hell things were so ordered " that even
there all the souls having heard this preaching, might either
shew their repentance, or acknowledge their punishment to
be just because they did not believe." Hereupon, when
Celsus the philosopher made this objection concerning our
" 118
Saviour, Surely you will not say of him, that when
he could not persuade those that were here, he went unto
hell to persuade those that were there," Origen, the scholar
of Clemens, sticketh not to return unto him this answer :
" 119
Whether he will or no, we say this, that bpth being in
the body he did persuade not a few, but so many that for
the multitude of those that were persuaded by him he was
laid in wait for; and after his soul was separated from his

body, he had conference with souls departed from their bodies,


converting of them unto himself such as would, or such as
he discerned to be more fit for reasons best known unto
himself."
The like effect of Christ's preaching in hell is delivered
120 121
by Anastasius Sinaita, Jobius or Jovius, 122 Damascen,
123 124
CEcumenius, Michael Glycas, and his transcriber 125 The-
odorus Metochites. The author of the commentary upon
St Paul's Epistles, attributed to Ambrose, saith, " that
126
having triumphed over the devil he descended into the

117 KO.I ev adou 120


Anastas. Sinait. vel Nicaen. Quaest.
Ov\i r\ aurtj yeyovev
OLKOVOfiia ;
Iva. KaKel Tracrai ai \l/v%ai, cxr.
TOV /CTj/ouy/xaTos, TTJJ/ 121
Jobius de Verbo Incarnate, lib.
uoiav ev8eiiavrat, rj Ttji/ /coXatrii/ diKaiav ix. 38. in Photii Bibliotheca,
cap.
elvai, Si tav OVK eTricrrevarav, oftoXoyt)<rw(ri. Volum. ccxxii.
Ibid. 122
Johan. Damascen. de Orthodoxa
118
Ou OJJTTOU (frija-eTe trepl avrov, OTI
fide, lib. iii. cap. ult. et in Serm. de De-
/LIJJ
TOUS woe OJ/TCCS,
Treitras ecrreXXeTo eis
funct.
a&ov Treicrtov TOUS e/cel. Cels. 123
19
(Ecumen. in 1 Petr. iii.
Koi/ yurj /SouXtjTat, TOVTO <f)a[j.ev, 124
Mich. Glyc. part. HI. Annalium.
OTI Koi ev wv OVK oXtyous eireitrev,
(TWfjLaTL 125
ctXXa TOCTOUTOU?, ws Sid TO TrX^flos Ttoi/
Theodor. Metochit. in Historia Ro-

ireiQofJievtav 67rij3ouXei;0^i/cti UVTOV' /cat mana, a Meursio nuper edita ; quae ex


(rutfj.a.TO's 'yevop.evo's
Glyca tota est desumpta.
126
's
cru>fJLO.T(av (afi.i\i Triumphato diabolo descendit in
v KctKeivuiv TCCS /Soi/Xo^ievas TT/OOS cor terras, utostentio ejus praedicatio esset

, i) as e<apa SL ous 77^61 OUTOS Xoyows mortuorum, ut et quotquot cupidi ejus


Origen. lib. ii. contra essent liberarentur. Ambros. in Ephes.
Celsum. cap. 4.
vin,] 01 LI M BUS PATRUM. 261

heart of the earth, that the shewing of him might be the


preaching of the dead, and that as many as were desirous
of him might be delivered."
Procopius saith, that " 127 he

preached to the were in hell, restrained in the


spirits that

prison-house, releasing them all from the bonds of necessity."


Wherein he followeth St Cyril of Alexandria, writing upon
the same place, "
128
that Christ went to preach to the spirits
in and appeared to them that were detained in the
hell,

prison-house, and freed them all from bonds, and


necessity,
and pain, and punishment." The same St Cyril in his
Paschal Homilies affirmeth more directly, that our Saviour,
" 129
entering into the lowermost dens of hell, and preaching
to the spirits that were there," "
13
emptied that unsatiable
" 131
den of death," spoiled hell of spirits;" and having thus
13a " all
spoiled hell, left the devil there solitary and alone."
133
For when " Christ descended into hell," saith Andronicus,
" not
only the souls of the saints were delivered from thence,
but all those that before did serve in the error of the devil
and the worship of idols, being enriched with the knowledge
of God, obtained salvation for which also
they gave thanks,;

praising God." Whereupon the author of one of the ser-


mons upon the ascension, fathered upon St
fthrysostom,
bringeth in the devil complaining that the son of Mary,
" 134
having taken away from him all those that were with
him from the very beginning, had left him desolate." And
in another sermon, held to be his indeed, our Saviour is

127 'O ctuTos Kal TO!S kv aSov, KaQ- 132


"0X01; yap eu0uso /cyXew<rasToi/a^t/i/
-
tie
> .

pyfjievois ev OIKW </>yAo/c^s, eKijpvfce irvev- Kal TCCS dffrvKTOvs Tols Ttav KCKOt/tiTj/xci/wi/

Sea-fJLtav aWy/crjs Trdvras dveii. TTvevfJLaffiv a'j/aTrTct<ras iri/Xas, eptjjjiov TC


Procop. in Esai. cap. xLii. Kal a(/>6ts e/celaeTOV Gid(3o\ov, dveffTif
128 Id. Horn. VII.
Quod spiritibus in inferno praedi- T/otij/ie/oos.
catum abierit, et detentis in domo custo- 133
Nam Christo ad inferos descendente,
dies apparuerit Christus, et omnes vinculis non sanctorum animse tantum liberatae
liberaverit, et necessitate et poena et sup- sunt inde ; sed omnes adeo prius in dia-
plicio. Cyrill. Alexand. fin. lib. iii. in boli errore et simulachrorum cultu servi-
Esai. cap. xi.ii. tutem servientes, aucti agnitione Dei, sa-
29 lutem sunt consecuti
Ka0iKOjuei/os ev TO!S KaTa>TaTois quare et gratias age-
:

TOO aSov /uLv^ols, Kal SiaKTipu^as -rots bant, Deum laudantes. Andronic. Dialog,
exelo-e -Tri/eu/ioo-i. Id. Homil. Paschal. contra Judaeos, cap. 60.
134
xx. Omnibus, qui jam inde ab initio
Toy apud me fuerant, tanquam accipiter cele-
50
a.TT\i]crTov TOU QavaTov
/w^ov. Id. Homil. xi. riter advolans abreptis desertum me re-
11
Seo-uXtp-o TOJI/ iri/ty/xaTWi liquit. Chrysost. in Ascens. Domini,
Id. Horn. vi. Serm. vin. a (ier. Vossio edit.
262 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

said " 135


have made the whole prison of hell desolate."
to
Whereas undoubted Chrysostom, writing upon the
the
eleventh of St Matthew, doth at large confute this fond
" 136
opinion, censuring the maintainers thereof as the bringers
1 137
in of old wives conceits and Jewish fables." Yea, Phi-
138
lastrius, and St Augustine out of him, doth brand such
for heretics;whose testimony also is urged by St Gregory
against George and Theodore, two of the clergy of Con-
stantinople, who held in his time, as many others did before
" 139 our
and after them, that omnipotent Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ descending into hell, did save all those who
there confessedhim to be God, and did deliver them from
the pains that were due unto them." And when Clement
our countryman, about 150 years after, did renew that old
error in that " 140
the God descending
Son of
Germany,
into hell, delivered from thence all such as that infernal
prison did detain, believers and unbelievers, praisers of
God and worshippers of idols," the 141
Roman Synod held

by Pope Zachary condemned him and his followers for it.

But to leave Clemens Scotus, and Clemens to return unto

Alexandrinus, at whom seem


Philastrius
may to have aimed
especially, it is confessed by our adversaries that he fell

135 TW 139
'Eire<rrr; aSy, epi]fj.ov avTov T^V Omnipotentem dominum salvato-
</>u\a/ojV eTroirjarev aTratrav. Id. in no- rem nostrum Jesum Christum ad in-
men Coemeterii et in Crucem, Serm. feros descendentem omnes, qui illic con-
LXXXI. Tom. v. edit. Savil. p. 565. fiterentur eum Deum, salvasse atque a
136
j^ jj ToiauTCt \oiirov poenis debitis liberasse. Vide Greg.
'

<5oy/u.etTa y/oaaWtj /cat /iwOous lib. vi. Epist. xv. et in Evangel.


Chrysost. in Matth. Homil. xxxvi. edit. Horn. xxn.
Graec. vel xxxvu. Latin. 140
Qui contra fidem sanctorum conten-
137 Alii sunt haeretici, qui dicunt domi- dit, dicens, quod Christus Filius Dei de-
num in infernum descendisse, et omnibus scendens ad inferos omnes quos inferni
post mortem etiam ibidem renunciasse, career detinuit inde liberasset, credulos et

(se nunciasse, corrigendum est ex Grego- incredulos, laudatores Dei simul et cul-

rioj) ut confitentes ibidem salvarentur. tores idolorum. Bonifac. Moguntin. ad


Philastr. Brixiens. de Haeresib. cap. 74. Zachariam P. Epist. cxxxv.
ubi respicere videtur ad ilia dementis 141
Dominum Jesum Christum descen-
Alexandrini verba, libro vi. Stromat. dentem ad inferos, omnes pios et impios
vioQi'iaovrai Tray-res oi TricrTeucraj/Tes, KO.V exinde praedicat abstraxisse ab omni sit :

e eQvoov oi/res Tu^tacriv, sacerdotali officio nudatus, et anathematis


vinculo obligatus, pariterque Dei judicio
138 condemnatus omnis qui ejus
Alia (haeresis) descendente ad in- ; vel sacrile-
feros Christo credidisse incredulos, et gis consenserit praedicationibus. Synod.
omnes inde existimat liberatos. Angus- Romana sub Zacharia P. ann. 745, habita.
tin. de Haeresib. cap. 79. Ibid, et Concilior. Tom. in.
VIII.]
OF LI M BUS I'ATKTM. 263

142
into this error, partly being deceived with the superficial
consideration of the words of St Peter touching Chrisfs
143
preaching to the spirits in prison, 1 Pet. iii. 19, partly
being deluded with the authority of Hermes, the supposed
scholar of St Paul, by whose 144 dreams he was persuaded
to believe, that not only Christ himself, but his Apostles

also, did descend into hell, to preach there unto the dead,
and to baptize them. But touching the words of St Peter
is main doubt, whether they are to be referred unto
the

by the ministry of Noah unto the world


Christ's preaching
of the ungodly, or unto his own immediate preaching to the

spirits in hell after his death upon the cross. For seeing
it was the Spirit of Christ which spake in the Prophets,
as 145 St Peter sheweth in this same Epistle, and among
them was Noah, 146 # preacher of righteousness, as he
declareth in the next, even as in St Paul Christ is said to
have U1 come and preached to the Ephesians, namely, by
his Spirit in the mouth of his Apostles ; so likewise in
St Peter may he be said to have gone and preached to the
I48
old world by his Spirit in the mouth of his Prophets,
and of Noah in particular, when God having said that his
149
Spirit should not always strive with man, because he
was flesh, did in his long-suffering wait the expiration of
the time which he then did set for his amendment, even an
hundred and twenty years. For which exposition the
^Ethiopian translation maketh something; where the Spirit

148 fuit superficie verborum ecXX' OVTOL <aJi/Tes caJ


Deceptus fikv KctTe/Stjaaj/,

Petri, quern non animadvertit longe dis- 7raA.ii/ %HovTs dveftrjarav' exelvot de ol

atque prima facie videatur.


tinctius loqui Tr/oo/ceKOi/Litj/uei/oi veKpol KaT6pr)<ra.v, ^wi/-
Henric. Vicus, de Descens. Christ! ad TCS oe ove/3r/<rai/. Sid TOVTWV ovv e^wo-
7roit)0t)<rai', Kal eTreyvoxrav TO ovofia TOV
inferos, sect. 43.
148
Delusus auctoritate Hermetis, putat vlov TOV Qeov. Sid TOVTO Kal vvvave/Brjarav
Christum evangelium praedicasse damna- /U.6T* avTwv Kal avvripfiocrav eis T/I/ olKO-
TOV irvpyov, Kal a'XaTo/titjTot <rvv-
tis, et eorum aliquos liberasse, qui ex gen- Sofjujv

tilibus sancte vixerant. Alphons. Men- taKoSofHidrjarav, OTI ev SiKaioarvwri eKoifju'i-


doz. in Controv. i. Qt](rav Kal ev fieydXri dyveia, /JLOVIJV Se TTJV
Theologic. Quaest.
(T^paytSa TavTijv OVK Hermes
positiv. sect. 4. secutus Andradium, lib. e<r~xpv.

ii. Defens. Fidei Tridentinae. in Pastore, lib. iii. similitud. ix. Citatur
144
01 a'lroorroXoi Kal SiSdvKaXoi, ol a Clemen te Alexandrine, lib. ii. Stro-

KijpuavTes TO ovofia TOV vlov TOV 6eoy, mat


145
KO.I KOljUT}6ej/T65, TT) CVVafJifl Kal TT) TriffTCL 1 Pet i. 11. '
2 Pet. ii. 5.
14 ?
auTov e*crj/ouai/ ToTs TrpoKeKOifJU^fievois' Ephes. ii. 17.
148
Kal avTol eSoaKav auTois Tt}v <F(ppaylSa Nehem. ix. 30; Zach. vii. 12; 2
TOV Ktjpuy/LtaTos. KaTe'/3fj<rai/ ovv fifT Sam. xxiii. 2.
149
eis TO vSiop, Kal iraXiv dveftti<rav. Gen. vi. 3.
264 ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

by which Christ is said to have been quickened and to


have preached, is
by the interpreter termed ^foiH:R.ft
that " the Holy Spirit." The addi-
Manephas Kodus, is,

tion of which epithet we may observe also to be used by


St Paul in the mention of the resurrection, and by St Luke
in the matter of the preaching of our Saviour Christ: for
of the one we read, Rom. i. 4, that he was declared to be
the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of
holiness, or, the most holy Spirit, by the resurrection from
the dead ; and of the other, Acts i. 2, that he gave com-
mandments to the Apostles by the holy Spirit.
Thus doth St Jerome that " 150 a most prudent
relate

man,"" for so he termeth him, did understand this place :

" 151
he preached to the put in prison, when the
spirits

patience of God did wait in the days of Noah bringing in


the flood upon the wicked." As if this preaching were then
performed, when the patience of God did expect the con-
version of those wicked men in the days of Noah. St
" 152 consider lest
Augustine more directly wisheth us to
haply all that which the Apostle Peter speaketh of the spirits
shut up in prison, which believed not in the days of Noah,
pertain nothing at all unto hell, but rather to those times
which he compareth as a pattern with our times." For
" Christ," saith he, " 153 before ever he came in the flesh
to die for us, which once he did, came often before in the

Spirit to such as he pleased, admonishing them by visions


in the Spirit as he pleased; by which Spirit he was also

quickened, when in his passion he was mortified in the


flesh." Venerable Bede, and Walafridus Strabus in the
ordinary gloss after him, set down their minds herein yet
more " 154
He who in our times coming in the
resolutely:

iso Vi r
prudentissimus. Hieronym. lib. quorum formam ad haec tempora transtu-
xv. in Esai. cap. Liv. lit. August. Epist. xcix.
153
151
Praedicavit spiritibus in carcere con- Quoniam priusquam veniret in came
quando Dei patientia exspectabat
stitutis, pro nobis moriturus, quod semel fecit,
in diebus Noe, diluvium impiis inferens. saepe antea veniebat in spiritu ad quos
Ibid. volebat, visis eos admonens sicut volebat
152
Considera tarn en ne forte totum utique in spiritu ; quo spiritu et vivifi-
illud, quod de conclusis in carcere spiri- catus est, cum in passione esset came
tibus, qui in diebus Noe non crediderant, mortificatus. Ibid.
154
Petrus apostolus dicit, omnino ad inferos Qui nostris temporibus in carne ve-
non pertineat, sed ad ilia potius tempora, niens iter vita; mundo praedicavit, ipsc
vin. ] 01 L1MBUS PATivUM. 265

flesh, preached the way of life unto the world, even he


himself also before the flood, coming in the Spirit, preached
unto them which then were unbelievers and lived carnally.
For by his holy Spirit he was in Noah and the rest of
the holy men which were at that time, and by their good
conversation preached to the wicked men of that age, that

they might be converted to a better course of life." The


same exposition is followed by Anselmus Laudunensis in
155
the interlineary gloss, Thomas Aquinas in his Summae,
and divers others in their commentaries upon this place.
Yea, since the and in a book written
Council of Trent,
in defence of the faith of Trent, Doctor Andradius professeth
that he thinketh this to be the plain meaning of the place :

" 156 In which


Spirit he himself long since coming, that we
may not imagine that he now first undertook the care of
his Church, did preach unto those spirits which now in
prison do suffer the deserved punishment of their infidelity ;
forasmuch as they would not believe Noah giving them
good counsel, and building the ark by God's appointment,
notwithstanding the patience of God did wait for them very
long, to wit, a hundred years or more." Which accordeth
fully with that interpretation of St Peter's words which
is delivered
by the learned of our side In which Spirit :

he had gone and preached to them that now are spirits


in prison, because they disobeyed when the time was, when
the patience of God once waited in the days of Noah, while
the ark was a preparing. 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20.
But were divers apocryphal Scriptures and tra-
there
ditions afoot in the ancient Church, which did so possess
men's minds with the conceit of Christ's preaching in hell,
that they never sought for any further meaning in St Peter's
words. As that sentence especially,
which was fathered
156
etiam ante diluvium eis qui tune incre- In quo spiritu jam olim ipse veniens,
duli erant et carnaliter vivebant, spiritu ne nunc primum ecclesiae curam eum
veniens praedicavit. Ipse enim per spiri- suscepisse arbitraremur, praedicavit spiri-
tum sanctum erat in Noe, ceterisque qui tibus illis qui nunc in carcere meritas
tune fuere sanctis ; et per eorum bonam jam infidelitatis suse poenas luunt ; quippe
conversationem pravis illius aevi homi- qui Noe recta monenti, et arcam Dei
nibus, ut ad meliora converterentur, prse- jussu construenti, tidem habere nunquam
dicavit. Bed. in 1 Pet. iii. et Gloss. voluerunt, quamvis Dei illos patientia
Ordinar. ibid. diutissime, hoc est, centum auteoamplius
15
Thorn, part. m. ^uin. Qusest. m. annos exspectaret. Andrad. Dcfens. Tri-
Artie. 2 ad 3. dentinac Fidei, lib. ii.
266 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

upon the or Jeremy, and from whence,


Prophet Isaiah
157
if Cardinal wisdom may be heard, "it is
Bellarmine's
credible that St Peter took his words," namely, " The
158

Lord the Holy One of Israel remembered his dead" which


"
slept in the earth of their graves, and descended to them
to preach unto them his salvation." And that blind tra-
dition which Anastasius Sinaita doth thus lay down imme-
after his citation of St Peter's text: "
159
diately It is now
related among the old traditions, that a certain scholar

using many opprobrious speeches against Plato the philo-


sopher, Plato appeared unto him in his sleep, and said,
Man, forbear to use opprobrious speeches against me ; for
thereby thou hurtest thyself. That I was a sinful man
I do not deny ; but when Christ descended into hell, in very
deed none did believe in him before myself." Nicetas Ser-
ronius reciteth this out of the Histories of the Fathers;
" 16
which whether it be to be believed or no, I leave,"
saith he, " to be judged by the hearers." As if any great
matter of judgment should be requisite for the discerning
of this to be, as Bellarmine doth censure it, " 161 a fable,"
" 162 an
or, as Dionysius Carthusianus before him, apocryphal
dream." The like stuff is that also which was vented
heretofore unto the world in the apocryphal Gospel of
Nicodemus; to say nothing of that sentence which is
read in the old Latin edition of the book of Ecclesiasti-
163
cus: 7 will pierce all the lowermost parts of the earth.

157 Bellarm. de Christo, cap.


lib. iv. TU> a&y, OI/TCOS ouoeis eirtTTV<re -TT/OO ffiov
13. eis auTov. Anast. Sin. vel Nicaen.
y8
'E/ui>7<r6tj de Kvpio-s o ayios 'I<r/oajX Quasst. cxi.
Tiiav vcKpwv avTou Ttav KCKOi,firifiev(ov els 160 Hoc de Platone commemoratur :
yrjv "XjuofJiaTos, Kai /ca-re/Jij Trpos avrov<s quod credendum sit necne, auditoribus
vayye\icraarQai auToIs TO crtaT^piov judicandum relinquo. Nicet. Commen-
ai>Tov. Citatur a Justino Martyre in- tar. in Gregor. Nazianz. Orat. u. de
Dialogo cum Tryphone; et Irenaeo, lib. Pascha.
161
iii.cap. 23, lib. iv. cap. 39, et lib. v. Quare inter fabulas numeranda est
cap. 31. ilia narratio, quam Patrum
in historiis
159
Kai vvv <f>epeTai ets dpyaia<i ira/oa- circumferri dicit Nicetas, &c. Hasc qui-
<56*<reis, OTI TI<S trxoXao-Ti/cos TroXXa Ka-rrj- dem fabula est. Bellarm. lib. iv. de
pdcraTO TOV IIXaTtoz/cc TOV <pi\6<ro<j>ov. Christo, cap. 16.
4>af i/erai ovv avTut Ka6' uiri/ovs o HXaTtov, 162
Istud inter apocryphorum compu-
Xeywv, "A.v6p(OTre, Travcrai TOV naTapd- tandum est somnium. Dionys. Carthu-
<r0ai treauToi/ OTI sian, in 1 Pet. iii.
fj.e, yap /SXctTTTets. fiev
avQpiaTros d/LtapTO)Xos yeyova, OVK dpvov-
les
p enetrabo omnes inferiores partes

/wai* Tr\r]V KaTeX0oj/Tos TOW terrae, et inspiciam omnes dormientes, et


VIII I
OF LIMBUS PATIIUM.

and behold all that are asleep, and enlighten all them
that hope in the Lord. Which, although it be not now to
be found in the Greek original, and hath perhaps another
meaning than that to which it is applied, yet is it made,
by the author of the imperfect work upon Matthew, one
of the chief inducements which led him to think that our
Saviour descended into hell to visit there the souls of the

righteous.
The
tradition that of all others deserveth greatest con-
sideration, is the article of the Creed touching Christ's
164
descent into hell, which Genebrard affirmeth to have been
so hateful to the Arians, that, as Ambrose reporteth upon
the 5th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, they struck
it quite out of the very Creed of the Apostles. But neither
is there the least footstep of any such matter to be seen in
St Ambrose; and it
sufficiently appeareth otherwise, that the
Arians did not only add this article unto their creeds, but
also set it forth and amplified it with many words, so far
off were they from being guilty of suppressing it. For as
the Fathers of the first general Council, held in the year
of our Lord 325, at Nice in Bithynia, did publish a creed
against the Arians; so the Arians on the other side, in the

year 359, set out a creed of their own making, in a Synod


165
purposely kept by them at Nice in Thracia, that by the

ambiguity of the Council's name the simpler sort might be


more easily induced to mistake this Nicene for that other
catholic Nicene Creed. And whereas the true Nicene Fathers
had in their Creed omitted the article of the descent into
hell, (which, as we shall afterwards hear out of Ruffinus,
was not to be had in the symbols of the Eastern churches,)
these bastard fatherlings in their Nicene Creed did not only
insert this clause, "
He descended to the places under the
166

" Whom
earth," but added also for further amplification, hell

illuminabo omnes sperantes in Domino. ita fuisse adversatos, ut eum de Symbolo


Vel ut ab auctore Operis imperfecti in Apostolorum expungerent. Gilbert. Ge-
Matth. (inter Opera Chrysostomi) Ho- nebrard. lib. iii. de Trinitate, in Symboli
milia iv. citatur :Descendam ad infe- Athanasiani expositione.
165
riores partes terra-, et visitabo omnes dor- Sozomen. Histor. lib. iv. cap. 18;
mientes, et illuminabo sperantes in Deum. Nicet. Thesaur. lib. v. cap. 17.
86
Ecclesiastic, xxiv. 45. Kat eis T Ka-rayftovia. KaTeXSovra'
64
Ambrosius in quintum caput ad ov airros o adrj^ tTpo/na^e. Theodoret.
Romanos auctor est Arianos huic articulo Histor. lib. ii. cap. 21.
268 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

itself trembled at." The like did they, with the words a
167
little altered, in another creed set out in a Conventicle

gathered at Constantinople; and in a third creed likewise,


framed by them Sirmium, and confirmed the same year
at
in their great Council at Ariminum, they put it in with a
more large augmentation, after this manner: " 168 He descended
to the places under the earth, and disposed things there,
whom the keepers of hell-gates seeing, shook for fear." If,

therefore, any fault were committed in the omission of this


article, it should touch the orthodox Fathers of Nice and
Constantinople rather, whom the
169
Latins, disputing with
the Grecians in the Council of Ferrara, do directly charge
1
with subtracting this article from the Apostles Creed,
f<
although they free them from blame in so doing, because
took " did
they that it
away," say they, not deny it, nor
fight against the truth."
But first
they should have shewed that the Fathers of
Nice and Constantinople did find this article of Christ's
descent into hell in the Apostles' Creed, before they ex-
cused them from taking it away from thence. For the Creed
of the Council of Constantinople, which commonly goeth
under the name of the Nicene Creed, being much larger
than our common Creed, and itself also (no less than the
other) being heretofore both
17
accounted and m named the
1

Apostles Creed, it is not to be thought that it would leave


out any article which was then commonly believed to have
been any parcel of the Creed received from the Apostles.
Add hereunto the ingenuous confession of Busaeus the
Jesuit, in his positions touching Christ's descent into hell :

" J
"
2
St Cyprian, or Ruffmus rather, in his Exposition of the
167 Kai ets TO. KCtTayQovia 5ieXi)Xi/0OTa, inferos. Verum qui detraxerunt, id non
OVTIVO. teal airros 6 o'5rjs eTTTfjge. Atha- negabant, neque cum veritate pugnabant.
nas. in Epist. de Synodis Arimini et Se- Johan. Foroliviensis Episc. in Session, x.
leuciae; Socrat. Histor. lib. ii. cap. 41, Concil. Ferrar.
170 in Ay/cu/owr. p. 518.
edit. Graec. vel 32 Latin. Epiphan. AuVt;
168
Kat ets TU KaTCfxQo fj.v 7} TTICTTIS 7ra/oe<5o0jj aVo Twv dy'uov
KCLL TO. e/cet(re oiKovofJL^ffavTa, ov irv\tapoL d'7roa"r6\tav.
171 In Missa Latina
idoWes eQpigav. Athanas. ibid. ; antiqua, edit. Ar-
Socrat. lib. ii. cap. 37, edit. Graec. vel 29 gentin. ann. 1557, P- 41, post recitatum
Latin. The speech is taken from Job Symbolum Constantinopolit. subjicitur :

xxxviii. 17, in the Septuagint. ! Finito Symbolo Apostolorum dicat sacer-


169
Constat ex hoc, nihil esse de Sym- j
dos, Dominus vobiscum.
bolo Apostolorum subtrahendum. Sub- 17:3
Beatus Cyprianus, vel potius Ruffi-
tractum tamen est illud, Descendit ad nus, in Expositione Symboli, ncgat hunc
VIII.]
oi i.i.Misrs PATRDTI.

Creed, denieth that this article is read in the Creed of tlu-


Church of Rome or the churches of the East ; and some
of the most ancient Fathers, while either they gather up
the sum of the Christian faith, or expound the Creed of the

Apostles, have omitted this point of doctrine. But at what


time it was inserted in the Creed, it cannot certainly be de-
termined." The first particular Church that is known to
have inserted this article into her Creed is that of Aquileia,
which added also the attributes of " 173 invisible and impas-
sible" unto " God the Father Almighty" in the beginning
of the Creed, as appeareth by Ruffinus, who 174 framed his
Exposition of the Creed according to the order used in that
Church. But whether any other Church in the world for
500 years after Christ did follow the Aquileians in putting
the one of these additions to the apostolical Creed more
than the other, can hardly, I suppose, be shewed by any
approved testimony of antiquity.
Cardinal Bellarmine noteth that " 175
St Agustine, in his
book de Fide et Symbolo, and in his four books de Symbolo
ad Catechumenos, maketh no mention of this part, when he
doth expound the whole Creed five several times." Nay,
Petrus Chrysologus, who was Archbishop of Ravenna 450
1 6
years after Christ, doth '

six several times go over the


Exposition of the Creed, and yet never meddleth with this
article. The like also may be observed in 177 Maximus
Taurinensis's Exposition of the Creed. For as for the two
178
Latin expositions thereof that go under the name of St
Chrysostom, (the latter whereof hath it, the former hath it

not,) and the others that are found in the tenth tome of
St Augustine's works among the Sermons de Tempore, ( 179 four

174Nos tamen ilium ordinem sequimur,


articulum legi in ecclesiae Romanae sym-
bolo et Orientis ecclesiis ; et vetustissimi quern in Aquileiensi ecclesia per lavacri
patres quidam, dum vel summam fidei gratiam suscepimus. Id. ibid.
175 inlibro de Fide et
Christianae velsymbolum apostolicum Augustinus,
exponunt, hoc dogma praetermiserunt. Symbolo, et quatuor libris de Symbolo ad
Quando autem insertum sit symbolo, certe Catechumenos, non meminit hujus partis,
constitui non potest. Johan. Busaeus, de cum totum symbolum quinquies exponat.
DescensuChristiadInferos,Thes.xxxiii. Bellarm. de Christo, lib. iv. cap. 6.
173 178
[Omnipotentem.] His additur, In- Petr.Chrysolog. Serm. LVII LXII.
visibilem et impassibilem Sciendum
.
177 Maxim. Homil. de Traditione Sym-
quod duo isti sermones in ecclesiae Ro- boli.
manae symbolo non habentur. Constat 178 Tom. v. Oper. Chrysost. Latin.
autem apud nos additos haereseos causa 179 Serm. de Tempore, cxv. cxxxt.
Sabellii. Ruffin. in Exposit. Symbol. CLXXXI. cxcv.
270 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

of which do repeat it, and lso two do omit it,) because the
authors of them, together with the time wherein they were
written, be altogether unknown, they can bring us little
light in this enquiry. Only for the Greek symbol this is
certain, that as it is not found in the recital which Mar-
181
cellus Ancyranus maketh thereof in his Epistle to Julius,
Bishop of Rome, so is it likewise wanting in the Greek
Creed written in Saxon characters, which is to be seen at
the end of King JEthelstane's Psalter in Sir Robert Cotton's
rare Treasury. And after it came to be admitted more gene-
ls2
rally into the Latin, as it was there at first Descendit ad
inferna, and at last Descendit ad inferos ; so, with a like
diversity, do I same added to the Greek also,
find the
KciTe\9ovTa ets TO, /carwrara being put to express the one,
and KareXOovra ets q$ov to answer the other the latter :

whereof is to be seen in our common printed copies the ;

former in a manuscript of Bene't College library in Cam-


bridge, where the symbol of the Apostles, together with the
whole Psalter, is set down in Greek and Latin, but the
Greek written in Latin letters.
Neither is there by this which hath been said any whit
more derogated from the credit of this article, than there
is from others whose
authority acknowledged to be un-
is

doubted and beyond all exception, as namely, that of our

Saviour's death and the communion of saints: the one


whereof as sufficientlyimplied in the article of the crucifixion
as a consequent, or the burial as a necessary antecedent

thereof, the other as virtually contained in the article of the


Church, we find omitted not in the Constantinopolitan symbol
alone, and in the ancient apostolical Creeds expounded by
Ruffinus, Maximus, and Chrysologus, but also in those that
184
are extant in 183 Venantius Fortunatus, 580, and in Etherius
and Beatus, 785 years after Christ: as in the two Greek
ones likewise, that of Marcellus, and the other written in
the time of the English Saxons. In all which likewise may
be noted, that the title of Maker of heaven and earth
180 183 num. in Exposit.
Serm. cxix. et cxxin. Fortunat. lib. xi. 1,
181
Epiphan. Haeres. LXXII. p. 356, Symbol.
edit. Graec. 184 contra
Etherius et Beatus, lib. i.
182
Vide Veterem Ordinem Romanum,
Elipandum Toletan. p. 51, edit. Ingol-
et Innocentium in. de Mysteriis Missae, stad.
lib. ii. cap. 15.
VIII.]
OK I.IMIU-S i' ATI: CM.
271

isnot given to the Father in the beginning of the Creed,


which out of the Creed of Constantinople we see is now
every where added thereunto. Of which additions as there
185
is now no
question any where made, so by the consent of
both sides this of the descent into hell also is now num-
1
bered among the articles of the Apostles Creed. For the
186
Scripture having expressly testified that the prophecy of
the Psalmist, l87 Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell, was
verified in Christ, St Augustine's conclusion must necessarily
be inferred thereupon: " 188 Who, therefore, but an infidel
will deny that Christ was in hell ?" Thus " 189 all agree that
Christ did some manner of way descend into hell," saith
Cardinal Bellarmine " but the whole
question is touching
:

the exposition of this article." The common exposition which


the Romish divines give thereof is this, that by hell is here
190
understood not that place wherein the wicked are tormented,
but the bosom of Abraham, wherein the godly Fathers of the
Old Testament rested, for whose delivery from thence they
say our Saviour took his journey thither. But St Augustine,
in that same place wherein he counteth it a point of in-

fidelity to deny the going of Christ into hell, gainsayeth


this exposition thereof, professing that he could find the
name of hell nowhere given unto that place wherein the
souls of the righteous did rest. " 191
Wherefore," saith he,
" if the
holy Scripture had said that Christ being dead did
come unto the bosom of Abraham, not having named hell
and the pains thereof, I marvel whether any would have
186
Descensum ad inferos nunc, consen- Thorn. Disp. xLin.sect.4. Non descendit
tientibus sectariis, inter
germanos sym- ad inferos reproborum ac in perpetuum
boli apostolic! articulos numeramus. Jo. damnatorum, quoniam ex eo nulla est re-
Busaeus, de Descens. Thes. xxxin. demptio igitur ad eum locum descendit,
:

186
Acts ii. 27, 31.
w Psalm xvi. 10. qui vel sinus Abrahae, vel communiter
188
Quis ergo nisi infidelis negaverit Limbus Patrum appellatur. Fr. Fevar-
fuisse apud inferos Christum ? Augustin. dent. Dialog, vi. contra Calvinian. p. 509.
Epist. xcix. edit. Colon.
189
Ac primum omnes conveniunt quod 191
Quapropter si in ilium Abrahae si-
Christus aliquo modo ad inferos descen- num Christum mortuum venisse sancta
derit, &c. At quaestio tota est de expli- scriptura dixisset, non nominato inferno
catione hujus articuli. Bellarmin. de ej usque doloribus, miror si quisquam ad

Christo, lib. iv. cap. 6. inferos eum descendisse asserere auderet.


190 In
D. Thorn.
iii. Sent. Dist. xxii. Sed quia evidentia testimonia et infernum
Bonavent. Richard. Gab. Palud. et Mar- commemorant et dolores, nulla causa oc-
sil. Quaest.xin. et reliqui in hoc conve- currit cur illo credatur venisse Salvator,

niunt, quod ad locum damnatorum non nisi ut ab ejus doloribus salvos faceret.
descendit. Fr.Suarez.Tom.ii.in part. in. August. Epist. xcix.
272 ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

been so bold as to have avouched that Christ descended into


hell. But because evident testimonies do make mention both
of hell and pains, I see no cause why our Saviour should
be believed to have come thither, but that he should deliver
men from the pains thereof." And " 192 therefore what benefit
he brought unto those just men that were in the bosom of
Abraham when he did descend into hell, I have not yet
found." Thus far St Augustine.
For the better understanding of this we are to call
unto mind that saying of 193 the philosophers, that " they
who do not learn rightly to understand words, use to be
deceived in the things themselves." It will not be amiss,

therefore, to consider somewhat of the name of hell, that


194
the nature of the word being rightly understood, we may
the better conceive the truth of the thing that is signified

thereby ; carrying always in remembrance that necessary rule


delivered by Severus, Bishop of Antioch, in his exposition
upon Job xxxviii. 28, that " 195 it is fit we should under-
stand names according to the quality of the matters subject,
and not regulate the truth according to the abuse of words."
We are to know, then, first of our English word hell, that
the original thereof is delivered diversely.
by divers men
Some derive it from the Hebrew word
sheol, either subtracting
the first letter or including it in the aspiration. For " 196 this
letter s," saith Priscian, " hath such an affinity with the
aspiration, that the Boeotians in some words were wont to
write h for s, saying Muha for Musa." Others bring it
from the Greek word e'Aos, which signifieth a lake; others
from the English hole, as signifying a pit-hole ; others from
hale, as noting the place that haleth or draweth men unto
it. Some say, that in the old Saxon or German
hell signifieth

192
Unde illis justis qui in sinu Abrahas
erant, cum ille in inferna descenderet, TO. Trpdy/uLara. Plat, in Crat.
195
nondum quid con tulisset inveni ; a quibus IL\r}i/ Kal TO. ovofiaTa irpoff^Kei voelv
eum secundum beatificam praesentiam TT/oos Tr\v TUV vTTOKeifjievwv
suae divinitatis nunquam video recessisse. n-oioTtp-a, Kal ov TTjOos TijV
Id. ibid. TWV \eewv TdXtjQij Kavovi^eiv. Sever,
in Catena Graeca in Job. p. 491, edit. Venet.
193
"Apia-To. Xeyerai irapd TOIS (f>L\o(ro- 196 Adeo autem
cognatio est huic literae,
a/cou-
s, cum aspiratione, quod pro ea in
</>ots,To Tousyntj /JLavQdvovra? o/o0u> id est
LV ovofiaTcov ica/cws Kal TOIS
~)(jpf)crQaL
quibusdam dictionibus solebant Boeoti pro
jrpay/uao-i. Plutarch, in lib. de Iside et
s t h scribere, Muha pro Musa dicentes.
Osiride. Priscian. lib. i.
VIII.]
OK I, I.MH1IS I'ATKITAI.

deep, whether it be high or low. But the derivation given


197
by Verstegan is the most probable, from being helled over,
that is hidden or covered.
to say, For in the old German
tongue, from whence our English was extracted, *hil signi-
fieth to hide, and hiluh, in Otfridus Wissenburgensis, is

hidden; and in this country, with them that retain the


ancient language which their forefathers brought with them
out of England, to hell the head is as much as to cover the
head; and he that covereth the house with tile or slate is
from thence commonly called a hellier. So that in the original
propriety of the word our hell doth exactly answer the Greek
a^?, which denoteth TOV diSij TOTTOV, the place which is
unseen, or removed from the sight of man.
We
are in the second place, therefore, to observe, that
the term of hell, beside the vulgar acceptation, wherein it

signifieth that which (Luke xvi. 28) is called the place of

torment, is, in the ecclesiastical use of the word, extended


more largely to express the Greek word hades and the Latin
inferi, and whatsoever is contained under them. Concerning
which St Augustine giveth this note: " 199
The name of hell
is
variously put Scriptures, and in many meanings,
in the

according as the sense of the things which are entreated of


doth require ;" and Master Casaubon, who understood the
property of the Greek and Latin words as well as any,
this other: "
200
who think that HADES is
They properly the
seat of the deceived than they who, when
damned be no less

they read INFEROS in Latin writers, do interpret it of the


same place." The less cause have we to wonder that hell
in the Scripture should be made the place of all the dead
in common, and not of the wicked only. As in Psalm
LXXXIX. 47? 48, Remember how short my time is : wherefore
hast thou made all men in vain ? what man is he that
liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul

from the hand of HELL? and Isaiah xxxviii. 18, 19, HELL

Qui a'ojv proprie sedem damnatorum


197 20
Rich. Versteg. Restitution of English
Antiquities, chap. 7- esse existimant, non minus hallucinantur

quara illi qui, cum legunt apud Latinos


198
Vide GoldastiAnimadvers. in Wins-
scriptores inferos, de eodem loco
bekii Paraneses, p. 400. inter-
199
Varie in scripturis et sub intellectu pretantur. Casaub. in Gregor. Nyssen.
multiplici, sicut rerum de quibus agitur Epist. ad Eustath. Ambros. et Basiliss.
sensus exigit,nomen ponitur inferorum. Not. 116.
August. Qunest. super Numer. cap. 2fl.
ANSWER TO A JESUIT*^ CHALLENGE. [cHAT.

cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee> they that go


down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The LIVING,
the LIVING, he shall praise thee, as I do this day. Where
the opposition betwixt hell and the state of life in this
world is to be observed. Now, as the common condition
of the dead is considerable three manner of ways, either in

respect of the body separated from the soul, or of the soul


separated from the body, or of the whole man indefinitely
considered in this state of separation, so do we find the
word hades (which by the Latins is rendered infernus or
inferi, and by the English hell) to be applied by the ancient
Greek interpreters of the Old Testament to the common state
and place of the body severed from the soul by the heathen ;

Greeks to the common state and place of the soul severed


from the body and by both of them to the common state
;

of the dead, and the place proportionably correspondent to


that state of dissolution.And so the doctors of the Church,
speaking in the same language which they learned both from
the sacred and the foreign writers, are accordingly found to
take the word in these three several significations.

Touching the first, we are to note that both the Septua-


201
gint in the Old Testament, and the Apostles in the New,
do use the Greek word 'At^s, HADES, (and answerably there-
unto the Latin interpreters the word infernus or inferi, and
the English the word hell,) for that which in the Hebrew
text is named ^INitf SHEOL. On the other side, where in
the New Testament the word HADES is used, there the

ancient Syriac translator doth put \\o* skejul, and the

^Ethiopian TxA siolo, instead thereof. Now the Hebrew


sheol Chaldee, Syriac, and ^Ethiopian words
(and so the
which draw their original from thence) doth properly denote
the interior parts of the earth that lie hidden from our

sight ; namely, whatsoever tendeth downward from the sur-


face of the earth unto the centre thereof. In which respect
we see that the Scripture describeth sheol to be a deep
place, and thereof unto the height of
opposeth the depth
heaven: 8; Psalm cxxxix. 8; Amos ix. 2.
Job xi. Again,
because the bodies that live upon the surface of the earth
are corrupted within the bowels thereof, **the dust returning

201 202
Acts ii. 27 ; 1 Cor. xv. 55. Eccles. xii. 7 ; Job xxxiv. 1ft.
Vlir.]
OK I.I.Ml! IS PAT RUM.

to the earth as it was, therefore is the word commonly put


for the state and the place wherein dead bodies do rest and
are disposed for corruption. And in this respect we find
that the Scripture doth oppose sheol not only unto heaven,
but also unto this land of the living wherein we now breathe,
(Isaiah xxxviii. 10, 11 ; Ezekiel xxxii. 27) ; the surface of the
earth being the place appointed for the habitation of the
living, the other parts ordained to be the chambers of death.
Thus they that are in the graves (John v. 28) are said to
sleep in the dust of the earth (Dan. xii. 2.) The Psalmist,
in his
prophecy of our Saviour's humiliation, termeth it the

dust of death, (Psalm xxii. 15), which the Chaldee paraphrast


expoundeth NJTlllp JT1 the house of the grave, interpret-
ing sheol after the selfsame manner in Psalm xxxi. 18, and
Lxxxix. 49. In the Hebrew Dictionary printed with the

Complutense Bible, anno 1515, the word bwV sheol is ex-


pounded infernus sive inferus, aut fovea, vel sepulchrum ;
" R. Mardochai Nathan, in his
hell, the pit, or the grave."
Hebrew Concordance, giveth no other interpretation of it
but only lip or the grave. R. Abraham Aben-Ezra, in his
Commentary upon those words, Gen. xxxvii. 35, / will go
down into sheol unto my son mourning, writeth thus:
" 203 Here the translator of the meaneth
erring persons" (he
2W
the Vulgar translation used by the Christians)
Latin
" erreth in translating sheol hell or gehenna ; for, behold,
the signification of the word is lip or the grave. For proof
whereof he allege th divers places of Scripture. Where by
the way you may note, that in the last edition of the
Masoretical and Rabbinical Bible, printed by Bombergius,
both this and divers other passages elsewhere have been cut
out by the Romish correctors ; which I wish our Buxtorfius
had understood, when he followed that mangled and cor-
rupted copy in his late renewed edition of that great work.
R. Salomo Jarchi, writing upon the same words, Gen.
" 2G5
xxxvii. 35, saith that, according to the literal sense, the

interpretation thereof is the grave, (in my mourning I will


be buried, and I will not be comforted all
my days), but

33 1
biNiy D3inu> D-jro ? DairiD nyn n3T Kin -op v
Aben-Ezra, in Gen. xxxvii. vr ^ oronx Nbi Salom.
H
2i
An ayD L
' ibi positum pro Jarchi, in Gen. xxxvii.
id est, Latinorum ?

s 2
ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

after theMidrash, or allegorical interpretation, it is gehenna"


In like manner, R. David Kimchi, expounding that place,
Psalm ix. 17, The wicked shall turn into hell, and all
the nations that forget God, acknowledged that, by the
Derash or 206
allegorical exposition, into hell is as much to

say as into
gehenna ; but according
the literal meaning to
he expoundeth it lip*? into the grave, intimating withal that
the Prophet 207 useth here the term of turning or returning
with reference to that sentence, Gen. iii. 19, Dust thou art,
and unto dust shalt thou return.
Out of which observation of Kimchi we may further
note, that the Hebrews, when they expound sheol to be the
grave, do not mean so much thereby an artificial grave
(to wit, a pit digged in the earth, or a tomb raised above
ground) as a natural sepulchre, such as Maecenas speaketh
of in that verse,

208
]sj ec tumulum euro, sepelit natura relictos."

And Seneca, in his Controversies: "^Nature hath given


a burial unto all men such as suffer shipwreck, the same
:

wave doth bury that cast them away the bodies of such ;

as are crucified drop away from the crosses unto their burial ;

to such as are burnt alive their punishment is a funeral."


For this is the difference that is made by authors betwixt
" 210 he is understood to be buried
burying and interring, that
who is put away in any manner, but he to be interred
who is covered with the earth." Hence different kinds of
211
burials are mentioned by them, according to the different
usages of several nations, the name of a sepulchre being
212
given by them as well to the burning of the bodies of

206 2U
Elias in Tischbi, verb. 77- AieXo/z^oi Kara I6inj TCCS rackets, 6
207
2Wn "I5y *7NT 103 mitt" IDNT Kim- /J.ev"E\\tiv 6 $e IJe/0<njs eQa\ffev,
eK:ai;o-ei>,

chi in Psal. ix. u &e 'Ivcos vdXu> Trepi^piei, o <5e 2ru6rj5


208 Senec. Epist. XCII. de o
KarevQiei, AiyvTrnos.
!

rapi^euei
209
Omnibus natura sepulturam dedit: Lucianus, de Luctu.
212
naufragos idem fluctus qui expulit, sepe- |
Nee dispersis bustis humili sepul-
lit; suffixorum corpora crucibus in se- tura cremates. Cicer. Philippic, xiv.

pulturam suam defluunt; eos qui vivi | 'Ejue pev Kal TOUS eyuows Trainees rode
uruntur poena funerat. Idem. Annaeus j
TO Trvp 6d\f/ei, inquit uxor Asdrubalis,
Seneca, lib. viii. Controvers. iv. apud Appianum in Punicis. Vide et
210
Sepultus intelligitur quoquo modo Ctesiam, in Photii Bibliotheca, col. 129,
conditus, humatus vero humo contectus. edit. Graeco-Lat. TLepl TOV Qd\l/a.vro<3
Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vii. cap. 54. rov Trarepa $td rov Trvpos.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PATIUIM. i>77

the dead, used of old among the more civil nations, as to


the devouring of them by dogs, which was the barbarous
214
custom of the 213 Hyrcanians. Therefore Diogenes was wont
to that if the dogs did tear him he should have an
say,
"
Hyrcanian burial ;" and those beasts which were kept for
this use the
215
Bactrians did term in their language " sepul-
chral dogs," as Strabo relateth out of Onesicritus. So in
the Scripture the Prophet Jonas calleth the belly of the
2
whale, wherein he was devoured, the belly of sheol, that
of hell or the For " 217
Jonas," saith Basil of
is, grave.
"
Seleucia, was carried in a living grave, and dwelt in a
swimming prison dwelling in the region of death, the com-
;

mon lodge of the dead and not of the living, while he dwelt
in that belly which was the mother of death." And in the
2ls
Prophecy of Jeremiah, King Jehoiakim is said to be buried,
(although with the burial of an ass,) when his carcase was
drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
2l9
Capit omnia tellus
Quae genuit: coelo tegitur, qui non habet urnam.

The earth which begetteth all receiveth all, and he that


wanteth a coffin hath the welkin for his winding-sheet.
" 220
The earth is our great mother:"

Omniparens, eadem rerum commune sepulchrum.


* 21

The common mother, out of whose womb as naked we


came, so
^ naked
we return thither. According toshall
that in Psalm cxLvi. 4, His spirit goeth forth, he returneth
to HIS earth ; and Psalm civ. 29, Thou takest away their

breath, they die, and turn to THEIR dust. And this is


223
the sheol which Job waited for when he said, Sheol, or

213
Eamque optimam illi censent esse |
juei/os, vr\^6fievov oliciav Sea/j.wn]piov,
sepulturam. Cicero, Tuscul.Quaest lib. i. J
eyKivovpevov Qdpayfr QavaTov \wpiov
4
'EXeyev 6 Aioytfi/rjs, OTL av pev O'LKWV, veicptov jravSo\elov ov ^COVTWV,
f

icui/es avTov (nrapdia<riv, 'Yptcavia <rrai OLKWV yatrrepa OavaTov fjuj-repa. Basil.
tj Tct^tj. Stobaeus. I
Seleuc. Orat. xn. quae in Jonam est xii.
lilf.
Toi/s Old voarov 218 Jer. xxii. 19.
yap airei/oTj/coTcrs fj

219
yijpas ^COI/TCS Trapafld\\ecrQa.i Lucan. lib. vii.
220
i/ois Kvaiv e-TTiTtjoes -Trpos TOVTO, oi)s ev- Magna parens terra est. Ovid. Me-
TtK^lOrTCtS KoXoVVl TT\ tamorpb. i.
821
Strabo, Geograph. lib. ii. Lucret. de Rer. Natur. lib. v.
216 222
Jonah ii. 2. Job i. 21.
323 Job
"Hf 'Iwi/as ei/ *tjovri rdtpta (pepo- xvii. 13, 14.
278 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

the grave (for that is the hell which is meant here; as is


confessed not by Lyranus only, but by the Jesuit Pineda
also,) is mine house ; I have made my bed in the darkness.
I have said to corruption, Thou art my father ; to the worm,
Thou artmy mother and my sister.
This is that common sepulchre, non factum sed natum,
" not made
by the hand of man, but provided by nature
itself;" betwixt which natural and artificial grave these
differences may be observed. The artificial may be appro-
priated to this man or that man. The Patriarch David
is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto

this day, saith St Peter, Acts ii. 29 and, Ye build the tombs ;

of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,


saith our Saviour, Matth. xxiii. 29. But in the natural
there is no such distinction. It cannot be said that this
is such or such a man's sheol ; it is considered as the com-
mon receptacle of all the dead, as we read in Job 224 / know :

that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed


for all living.
225
to every man, For "
as Olympiodorus
11

writeth upon that place, " the earth itself is appointed as


a house for his grave." 226 There the prisoners rest together,
saith Job they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
; The
small and great are there; and the servant free from his
master. Again, into a made grave a man may enter in alive
227
and come out alive again, as Peter and John did into the
sepulchre of Christ ; but sheol either findeth men dead when
they come into it, which is the ordinary course, or if they
228
come into it alive, which is a new and unwonted thing,
it bringeth death upon them ; as we see it fell out in Korah
and his
complices, who
to have gone down alive
are said
into sheol, when the earth opened her mouth and swallowed
them up Numb. xvi. 30, 33. Lastly, as many living men
:

do go into the grave made with hands, and yet in so doing


they cannot be said to go into sheol, because they come
from thence alive again so some dead men also want the
;

honour of such a grave, as it was the case of God's servants,

224
Job xxx. 23. 23, secundum LXX. oi/acc yap TTUVTI
225
Cuilibet enim homini domus pro Qvt]TU> yTf.
226 Job 237
sepulchro ipsa terra est constituta. Olym- iii. 18, 19. John xx. 6, 8.

piodor. Caten. Grgec. in illud Job. xxx.


228
Num. xvi. 30.
VIII.]
OF LIAIBUS I'ATHI'M.

"'whose bodies were kept from burial, and yet thereby are
not kept from sheol ; which is the way that all flesh must
go to. For all go unto one place : all are of the dust,
and all turn to dust again. We
conclude, therefore, that
when sheol is said to signify the grave, the term of grave
must be taken in as large a sense as it is in that speech of
our Saviour, John v. 28, All that are in the graves shall
hear his voice, and shall come forth: they that have done
good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done
evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. And in Isaiah
xxvi. 19, according to the Greek reading, The dead shall
rise, and they that are in the graves shall be raised up.
Upon which place Origen writeth thus: " 231 In this place,
and in many others likewise, the graves of the dead are
to be according to the more certain meaning
understood,
of the Scripture, not such only as we see are builded for
the receiving of men's bodies, either cut out in stones or

digged down in the earth, but every place wherein a man's


body lieth, either entire or in any part albeit it fell out that ;

one body should be dispersed through many places, it being


no absurdity at all that all those places in which any part
of the body lieth should be called the sepulchres of that

body. For if we do not thus understand the dead to be


raised by the power of God out of their graves, they which
are not committed to burial, nor laid in graves, but have
ended their life either in shipwrecks or in some desert

places, so as they could not be committed to burial, should


not seem to be reckoned among them who are said should be
raised up out of their graves ; which would be a very great
absurdity." Thus Origen.

229
Psalm ; Rev. xi. 8, 9.
xcix. 2, 3 loca, inquibus pars aliqua corporis jacet,
830
Eccles. iii.and vi. 6.
20, sepulchra corporis ejus dici. Si enimnon
231
Sepulchra autem mortuorum in hoc ita accipiamus resurgere de sepulchris

loco, similiter et in multis aliis, secun- suis mortuos divina virtute, qui nequa-
dum certiorem scripturae sensum acci- quam sunt sepulturse mandati neque in
pienda sunt, non solum ea quae ad depo- sepulchris depositi, sed sive naufragiis
sitionem humanorum corporum videntur sive in desertis aliquibus defuncti sunt
esse constructa, vel in saxis excisa, aut locis, ita ut sepulhme mandari non potue-
in teira defossa, sed omnis locus in quo- rint, non videbuntur annumerari inter eos,

cunque vel integrum humanum corpus qui de sepulchris resuscitandi dicuntur :

vel ex parte aliqua jacet : etiam si acci- quod utique valde absurdum est. Origen.
dat ut unum corpus per loca multa dis- in Esai. lib. xxviii. citatus a
Pamphilo, vel
persum sit, absurdum non erit omnia ea Eusebio potius, in Apologia pro Ori^ene.
280 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

Now you shall hear, if


you what our Romish
please,
doctors do deliver touching this " 232 There be two
point.
Pererius upon Gen. xxxvii. " concern-
opinions," saith 35,

ing the one of the Hebrews, and of many of


this question :

the Christians in this our age, but especially of the heretics,

affirming that the word sheol signifieth nothing else in the


Scripture but the pit or the grave, and from thence reason-
ing falsely that our Lord did not descend into hell :"
" 233
the other is of undoubted and certain truth,
opinion
that the Hebrew word
Latin infernus
sheol, and the

answering it, to of Scripture and else-


both in this place

where, oftentimes doth signify not the pit or the grave,


but the place of hell and the places under the earth,
u234 Wheresoever
wherein the souls are after death." Jerome,"
" and the
saith Augustinus Steuchus upon the same place,
Septuagint have translated hell, it is in the Hebrew sheol,
that is, the pit or the grave. For it doth not signify that
place wherein antiquity hath thought that the souls of the
wicked are received." The " Hebrew word properly signi-
fieth the grave," saith Jansenius upon Proverbs xv. 12 ; the
" "
grave properly," and hell only metaphorically," saith
Arius Montanus, in his answer unto Leo a Castro ; " And,
in the Old Testament, the name
235
of hell doth always
almost import the grave," saith Alphonsus Mendoza. The
^ 36
Jesuit Pineda commendeth one Cyprian, a Cistercian monk,
as a man " famous for learning and piety," yet holdeth him

232 Duae super hac quaestione sunt sen- ac Septuaginta infernum interpretati sunt,
tentiae. Una
Hebraeorum, et de Chris-
est est sheol, hoc est, fossa sive sepulchrum.
tianis multorum in hac aetate nostra, max- Neque enim significat eum locum ubi
ime vero haereticorum, affirmantium vocem sceleratorum animas recipi antiquitas
sheol non significare aliud in scriptura opinata est. Aug. Steuch. in Gen. cap.
nisi fossam sive sepulchrum, et ex hoc xxxvii.
235
falsoargumentantium Dominum nostrum Fere semper inferni nomen sepul-
non descendisse ad infernum. Perer. in chrum sonat in Veteri Testamento. Al-
Genes, xxxvii. sect. 92. j phons. Mendoz. Controvers. Theologic.
233 Altera est sententia exploratae cer- j
Quaest. i. positiv. sect. 5.
880 Illud
tseque veritatis ; vocem Hebrasam sheol, non praeteribo, parum consi-
et Latinam ei respondentem infermis, et derate (ne graviore inuram nota) Cypria-
in hoc loco scripturae et alibi saepenu- num Cistersiensem (virum alioqui doc-
mero significare non fossam vel sepul- trina et pietate conspicuum) affirmasse
chrum, sed locum inferorum et subter- sheol, id est, inferos vel infernum, in toto
ranea loca, in quibus sunt animae post Veteri Testamento accipi pro sepulchro.
mortem. Ibid. sect. 96. Jo. Pined, in Job. cap. vii. vcrs. 0.
- S4
Hebraice, ubicunque Hieronymus num. 2.
OF LIMBUS PATRUM. 281
VIII.]

worthy be censured for affirming that sheol or hell " is


to
in all Old Testament taken for the grave."
the Another
croaking monk, Crocquet they call him, crieth out on the
2"
other side, that we shall never be able to prove, by the
"
producing of as much as one place of Scripture," that
sheol doth signify the grave. Cardinal Bellarmine is
a little, and but a very little, more modest herein. The
Hebrew sheol, " ^is
he saith, ordinarily taken for the place
of souls under the earth, and either rarely or never for the
grave ;" but the Greek 239
word " hades always signifieth
hell, never the grave." But Stapleton will stand to it
" ^"that neither hades nor sheol is in the Scriptures
stoutly,
241
ever for the grave, but always
taken for hell." The
" " is never taken
word infernus, hades, sheol" saith he,
for the grave. The grave is called in Greek Td<po<$,
in
Hebrew *Qp Wherefore all the paraphrasts of the Hebrews
also do expound that word sheol by the word gehenna,
as Genebrard doth shew at large in his third book of the

Trinity." Where yet he might have learned some more


moderation from Genebrard himself, unto whom he referreth
us, who thus layeth down his judgment of the matter in
" 242
As they be in an error who
the place by him alleged :

contend that sheol doth never design the grave, so have


they a shameless forehead who deny
doth any where that it

signify the region


of the damned," or Gehenna.
It is an error therefore in Stapleton, by his own author's

confession, to maintain, that sheol is never taken for the

grave ; and in so doing he doth but bewray his old wrangling

237 ob 241
Et ne vehementius sibi placeant Ceterum pro sepulchro vox infer-
suum illud sheol; nunquam efficient ut nusj a'&js, ^Ntr nunquam accipitur. Se-
uno saltern scripturae loco prolate praecla- pulchrum Graece TCC'^OS, Hebraice inp
ram illam interpretationem sepulchri con- vocatur. Quare et omnes paraphrastae
firment. Andr. Crocquet. Cateches. xix. Hebraeorum illam vocem VNB' explicant
238
Ordinarie accipitur pro loco anima- per vocem Gehennae; ut late ostendit
rum subterraneo, et vel raro vel nun- Genebrardus, lib. iii. de Trinitate. Ibid,
quam pro sepulchro. Bellarmin. lib. iv. inActs ii. 27-
de Christo, cap. 10. 242 in errore versantur
Quemadmodum
239 y ox ',j s significat semper infer-
vocem nunquam sepulchrum
qui earn
num, nunquam sepulchrum. Ibid. cap. 12.
designare contendunt, sic fronte sunt
4"
-'
Contra Bezam late ostendimus, nee
perfricta qui uspiam Gehennae region em
rt'otji/ nec 'jKTf pro sepulchro unquam, sed
negant significare. Genebrard. de Tri-
pro inferno semper in scripturis accipi. nitat. lib. in Athanasiani
iii. Symboli
Stapleton. Antidot. in 1 Cor. xv. ,55, and
Expositione.
Arts ii. 27.
282 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

disposition. But lest any other should take the " shameless
forehead" from him, he faceth it down that " all the paraphrasts
of the Hebrews" do interpret sheol by the word Gehenna.
Whereas it is well known that the two paraphrasts that are
of greatest antiquity and credit with the Hebrews, Onkelos
the interpreter of Moses, and Jonathan ben Uzziel of the

Prophets, never translate it so. Beside that of Onkelos, we


have two other Chaldee paraphrases, which expound the
harder places of Moses the one called the Targum of
;

Jerusalem, the other attributed unto Jonathan in neither :

of these can we find that sheol is


expounded by Gehenna;
213
but in the latter of them we see it twice expounded by

NJYTllp
s
l the house of the grave. In the Arabic inter-
244
pretations of Moses, where the translator out of the Greek
hath j^ax^3 !
al-giahimo, hell, there ^the translator out of

the Hebrew putteth ^J&\ al-tharay, which signifieth earth


246
or clay. Jacobus Tawosius, in his Persian translation
of the Pentateuch, for sheol doth always put 2* 7 gor, that is,
66
the grave." The Chaldee paraphrase upon the Proverbs
still the word ?W deflected a little from the Hebrew ;
keepeth
248
the paraphrast upon Job useth that word thrice ; but
249 250
^n")11p and NJVnp (which signifieth the grave), instead
thereof, five several times. In Ecclesiastes the word cometh
but ^once; and there the Chaldee paraphrast rendereth it
Nmilp JYQ the house of the grave. R. Joseph Coecus
doth the like in his paraphrase upon Psalm xxxi. 17, and
LXXXIX. 48. In Psalm cxLi. 7, he rendereth it by the sim-
ple tf.TVTQp the grave; but in the 15th and 16th verses of
the 49th Psalm by DiHJ or Gehenna. And only there, and in
Cantic. viii. 6, is sheol in the Chaldee paraphrases expounded

by Gehenna: whereby if we shall understand the place,


not of dead bodies, (as in that place of the Psalm the para-
252
phrast maketh express mention of the bodies waxing old,
or consuming in Gehenna,) but of tormented souls, as the

243 247
Gen. xxxvii. 35, and xLiv. 29. (
Jer apud Armenios et Turcas ter-
244
Ibidem in Genesi, quam cum com- ram significat.
mentario Arabico MS. penes me habeo ; 248
Job xi. 8, and xxiv. 19, and xxvi. 6.
et Deuteronom. xxxii. 22. 249 Job xxi. 13.
245
Pentateuch. Arabic, ab Erpenio 350 Job vii. 9, and xiv. J 3, and xvii. 13, 16.
edit. 251
ann. 1622. Eccles. ix. 10.
246 252
Pentateuch. Quadrilingue a Ju- D2n-jn ('"'ban
1'

jvpsna Psalm XL!X.


daeis Constantinopoli excusum.
'

15, Chald.
VIII.]
OF L1MBUS PAT RUM. 283

-
Rabbins more commonly do take it, yet do our Roman-
ists
get little advantage thereby, who would fain have
the sheol into which our Saviour went be conceived to
have been a place of rest, and not of torment ; the bosom
of Abraham, and not Gehenna, the seat of the damned.
As for the Greek word hades, it is used by Hippocrates
to express the first matter of things, from which they have
their and into which afterwards being dissolved
beginning,
they make their ending. For having said, that in nature
nothing properly may be held to be newly made or to
" ^But men do think that what
perish, he addeth this:
doth grow from hades into light is newly made, and what
is diminished from the
light into hades is perished:" by light
understanding nothing else but the visible structure and
existence of things, and by hades that invisible and insen-
sible thing which other
philosophers commonly call v\rjv,
^Chalcidius the Platonic translateth sylvam, the Aristo-
telians more fitly materiam primam. Whence also it is
supposed by ^Master Casaubon, that those passages were
borrowed which we meet withal in the books that bear
the name of Hermes Trismegistus. " 257 In the dissolution
of a material body the body itself is brought to alteration,
and the form which it had is made " 258 and so
invisible;"
is a
there privation of the sense made, not a destruction of
" ^I
the bodies." say then that the world is changed,
inasmuch as every day a part thereof is made invisible,
but never utterly dissolved." Wherewith we may compare
likewise that place of Plutarch, in his book of Living Pri-

vately : Generation " 260 doth not make any of the things

253 58
Elias in Tischbi, verb. narra. Kal O'VTW (rrepj(ris yiveTai
4
No/ue?Ti <5e vrapd Tiav dvQpwTTtov, ai<T0j/<r6O)s, OVK ctTrwXeta TWV
TO p.ev e aoov eis <a)s autj0ci/ yevecrQai, Id. Serm. vin.
259
TO <$e e/c TOV </>aeos eis aSrjv /uLetiaQev errro- Kal TOV Koa/Jiov <^>j/it /neTa/3a\Xe-
\6o-6ai. Hippocrat. de Diaeta, sive Vic- crQai, otd TO yivevQai ^itpos O.VTOV *ca6'
tus Ratione, lib. i. 6Ka<r-njj/ 7}/u.epav ev TW d<f>avel, /itj^eirore
255
Chalcid. in Timseum Platonis. oe \vearQai. Id. Serm. XI.
856 60
Casaub. in Baron. Exercit. j. cap. Ou yap Troiel TUJI/ yevofievuiv e/co-
10. <TTOV, aXXa deiKvv&iv' tatnrep ovde t/

TlpwTov fjiev ev Tf) dva\v<rei TOV d TOV OVTO? a/oais eis TO /uj ov
(rta/j.itTO'i TOV vXiKov, TTaoaoidtoffLV avTO iv, aXXa /uaXXoi/ eis TO aOjjXov dira-
TO <ru>fjLa eis dXXoittxrti/, Kal TO e!5os o y<ayi] TOV otaXuOeVros. "O6ei; 5t/ TOV fiev

elxev craves yiveTai. Herm. Pcemand. fj\iov 'AiroXXwva KUTU TOUS TrccTpiovs Kal
Serm. i. TToXaiOUS HtV/tOUS VOfJLltflVTfi, A/\lOt/ Kttl
284 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

that be, manifesteth them ; neither is corruption a


but
of a thing from being to not being, but rather
translation
a bringing of the thing that is dissolved unto that which is
unseen. Whereupon men, according to the ancient tradi-
tions of their fathers, thinking the Sun to be Apollo, called
him Delius and Pythius," namely, from manifesting of
" and the ruler of the
things ;
contrary destiny, whether
he be a God or an angel, they named hades, by reason
that we, when we are dissolved, do go unto an unseen and
invisible place." By the Latins this hades is termed
dispiter or diespiter ; which name they gave unto this
" 261
lower air that is joined to the earth, where all things
have their beginning and ending quorum quod finis ortus, ;

Orcus dictus," saith Varro. " 262 A11 this


earthly power
and nature," saith Julius Firmicus, " they named Ditem
Patrem, because this is the nature of the earth, that all

things do both fall into it, and, taking their original from
thence, do again proceed out of it." Whence the Earth
is
brought in using this speech unto God, in Hermes:
263
j rece i ve the na ture of all things for I, accord- ;

ing as thou hast commanded, do both bear all things and


receive such as are deprived of life."
The use which we make of the testimony of Hippocrates,
and those other authorities of the heathen, is to shew, that
the Greek interpreters of the Old Testament did most aptly
assume the word hades to express that common state and
place of corruption which was signified by the Hebrew sheol.
And therefore, in the last verse of the 17th of Job, where
the Greek maketh mention of " descending into hades"
264
Comitolus the Jesuit noteth that St Ambrose rendereth
it in sepulchrum, into the grave; which agreeth well

~n.v8i.ov Trpoaayopevov&L' TOV ^eTJjs evav- ram, Ditem patrem dicunt, quia haec est
TUZS Kvpiov fjioipas, e'/Te 0eos, erre dai/unav natura terras, ut et recidant in earn omnia,.
ea"riv,"Ai8riv ovo/jLa^ova-iv, cos av els aetoes et rursus ex ea orta procedant. Jul.
Kal dopaTov Tifiwv, OTO.V 5ictXu0w/u.ej/, /3a- Ferm. Matern. de Errore Profan. Relig.
SfyvTiov. Plutarch, in illud, Aa6e /3ta>- ex Ciceron.lib. ii. de Natur. Deor.
<ras. 263
Xo>jOO) 8' eyeo Kal (f>ua-iv irdvTcav'
261
Idem hie Diespiter dicitur, infimus ai/TTj yap, tos <ri)
-rr/ooo-eTa^as, Kal (pep<a
aer, qui est conjunctus terras, ubi omnia iravTO., Kal TO. (frovevQevra Se^ofiai. Herm.
oriuntur, ubi aboriuntur; quorum quod Minerva Mundi, apud Jo. Stobaeum in
finis ortus, Orcus dictus. Varro, de Lin- Eclogis Physicis, p. 124.
264
gua Latin, lib. iv. cap. 10. Paul. Capitol. Caten. Graec. in Job.
12
Terrenam vim omncm atque natu- xvii. ult.
VIII.]
01 LIMBUS I'ATRUM. 285

with that which Olympiodorus writeth upon the same chap-


ter: " Is it not a thing common unto all men to die?
265

is not " the house for all ? do not all find


or hades,
hell,""
there an end of their labours?" Yea, some do think that
Homer himself doth take ^179 either for the earth or the
grave in those verses of the eighth of his Iliads :

'

H fA.lv eXwv pi^o) es TapTapov qepoevra,


TijXe MctX', rj%i /3a$i<TToi/ VTTO yQovos eaTi fiepeOpov'
''EvOa (Tiorjpeiai TG WXcu, /cat
%

^aX/ceos uvoos,

evepO' aioew, OGOV ovpavos ear VTTO

As
- I'll

Tartarus, the brood of night, where Barathrum doth steep


cast him down as deep

Torment in his profoundest sinks where is the floor of brass ;

And the place for depth as far doth hell surpass


gates of iron :

As heaven for height exceeds the earth.

For Tartarus being commonly acknowledged to be a part


of hades, and to be the very hell where the wicked spirits
are tormented, they think the hell from whence Homer
maketh it to be as far distant as the heaven is from the earth,
can be referred to nothing so fitly
as to the earth or the

grave. It is taken also for a tomb in that place of


Pindarus :

e TT/OO
o>-

erepoi Xa^oi/re? aiSav


BacnXees lepol
/
evri.

Other sacred kings have gotten a tomb apart by themselves


before the houses, or before the gates of the city. And
therefore we see that 'A teas is by Suidas, in his Lexicon,

expressly interpreted o Tad)os, and by Hesychius Tvufios,


Ta<pos a tomb, or a grave.
9
And in the Greek Dictionary
set out by the Romanists themselves for the better under-
267
standing of the Bible, it is noted that hades doth not

265 266
Ou KOLVOV aTraariv dvOptoTrois T& Pindar. Pyth. Od. v.
; ou^ a6js aVao-ii/ 6 ol/cos ; , Orcus, Tartarus, sepulchrum.

OVK Kel Tra'j/Tcs Twv evOdce K Lexic. Graeco-Lat. in sacro Apparatu


T>V TTOVWV ; Olympiad. Caten. Graec. in Biblior. Regior. edit. Antuerp. ann.
Job. xvii. 1572.
286 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

only signify that which we commonly call hell, but the


sepulchre or grave also. Of which because Stapleton and
Bellarmine do deny that any proof can be brought, these
instances following may be considered.
In the book of Tobit, chap. iii. 10, / shall bring my
father's old age with sorrow eis a$ov, unto hell; what can
it
import else, but that which is in other words expressed,
chap. vi. / shall bring my father's life with sorrow ei?
14,
TOV unto the grave? In the 93rd and 113th Psalms,
T<i<pov,
according to the Greek division, or the 94th and 115th,
according to the Hebrew, where the Hebrew hath HDH the
place of silence, meaning the grave, as our adversaries them-
selves do grant, there the Greek hath hades or hell. In
Isaiah xiv. 19, where the vulgar Latin translateth out of
the Hebrew, Descenderunt ad fundamenta lad, quasi cada-
ver putridum, " They descended unto the foundations of
the lake or pit, as a rotten carcase ;" instead of the Hebrew
111 which signifieth the lake or pit, the Greek both there
and in Isaiah xxxviii. 18, putteth in hades or hell. And
on the other side, Ezek. xxxii. 21, where the Hebrew

saith, The strong among the mighty shall speak to him


out of the midst of sheol or hell, there the Greek readeth
et9 /3a0o9 \CLKKOV, or ev flaOei floOpov, in the depth of the

lake or pit; by hell, lake, and pit, nothing but the grave
being understood, as appeareth by comparing this verse
with the five that come after it. So in these places follow-

ing, where in the Hebrew is sheol, in the Greek hades, in

the Latin infernus or inferi, in the English hell, the place


of dead bodies, and not of souls, is to be understood. Gen.
xLiv. 29, Ye shall bring down my grey hairs with sorrow
unto hell, and verse 31, Thy servants shall bring down the
grey hairs of our father with sorrow unto hell. Where
no lower hell can be conceited into which grey hairs may
be brought, than the grave. So 1 Kings ii. 6, David giveth
this charge unto Solomon concerning Joab Let not his :

hoar head go down to hell in peace ; and in the ninth


verse concerning Shimei, His hoar head bring thou down
to hell with blood. Psalm cxLi. 1, Our bones are scattered
at the mouth of hell. Isaiah xiv. 11, Thy pomp is brought
down to hell ; the worm is spread under thee, and the worms
cover thee. Psalm vi. 5, In death there is no remembrance
VIII.]
01 MM BUS PATRUM. 287

of thee ; in hell who shall give thee thanks ? of which there


can be no better paraphrase than that which is given in
Psalm Lxxxviii. 11, 12, Shall thy lovingkindness be declared
in the grave ? or thy faithfulness in destruction ? shall thy
wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in
the land of forgetfulness?
Andradius, in his defence of the faith of the Council
of Trent, speaking of the difference of reading which is
found in the sermon of St Peter, Acts ii. 24, where God
is said to have raised
up our Saviour, loosing the sorrows
of death, as the Greek books commonly read, or the sorrows
of hell, as the Latin, saith, for reconciliation thereof, that
<c 268
there be no disagreement betwixt the Latin and
will
Greek copies, if we do mark that hell in this place is used
for death and the grave, according to the Hebrews' manner
of speaking, as in the 15th Psalm, which Peter presently
after citeth,Because thou wilt not Leave my soul in hell;
and Isaiah xxxviii. For hell cannot confess unto thee. For
when he saith " of the resurrection of
disputeth," he, Christ,
he confirmeth by many and most evident testimonies of
David, that Christ did suffer death for mankind in such
sort, that he could not be overwhelmed with death, nor long
lie hidden
among the dead. And it seemeth to me, that by
the sorrows of hell or death a death full of sorrow and
miseries is
signified, according to the Hebrews' manner of
speaking, as in Matt. xxiv. the abomination of desolation
is taken for an abominable desolation." Thus far Andradius,

clearly forsaking herein his fellow-defenders of the Triden-


tine faith, who by the one text, of loosing the sorrows of

death, would fain prove Christ's descending to free the souls


that were tormented in purgatory ; and by the other, of not

leaving his send in hell, his descending into Limbus to de-

868 Nullum humano genere mortem Christum


erit inter Latina Graecaque pro
exemplaria dissidium, si animadvertamus obiisse, ut morte obrui et delitescere inter

infernum hoc loco pro morte atque sepul- mortuos diu non posset. Videtur autem
chre, Hebrasorum dicendi more, usurpari, mihi per dolores inferni sive mortis mor-
ut Psal. xv. quern mox Petrus citat, Quo- tem doloris atque miseriarum plenam,
niam non dereliquisti animam meam in Hebraeorum dicendi more, significari,
inferno; etEsai. xxxviii. Quianoninfer- sicut Matthaei cap. xxiv. abominatio de-
nus confitebitur tibi. Nam cum de Christi solationis accipitur pro desolatione abomi-
resurrectione disserat, multis atque aper- nanda. Andrad. Defens. Tridentin. Fid.
tissimis Davidis testimoniis confirmat, ita i
lib. ii.
288 ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

liver the souls of the Fathers that were at rest in Abraham's


bosom.
The former of these texts, Acts ii. 24, is thus expounded
by Ribera the Jesuit: 4C269 God raised him up, loosing and

making void the sorrows of death, that is to say, that which


death by so many sorrows had effected ; namely, that the
soul should be separated from the body." His fellow, Sa,
interpreted! the loosing of the sorrows of death to be the
27
delivering of him from the troubles of death although ;

"
sorrow," saith he, may be the epithet of death, because
it useth to be joined with death." The Apostle's speech
hath manifest reference to the words of David, 2 Samuel
xxii. 5, 6, and Psalm xviii. (al. xvii.) 4, 5, where in the
former verse mention is made of filD ^1H the sorrows of
death, in the latter of ^INET ^in which by the Septuagint
is in the place of the Psalms translated w<5lWs a&ov, the
sorrows of hell; in 2 Samuel xxii. 6, 271 w&Ws Oavdrov, the
sorrows of death, according to the explication following in
the end of the selfsame verse, The sorrows of hell com-

passed me about, the snares of death prevented me ; and in


Psalm The sorrows of death compassed me, and the
cxvi. 3,

pains of hell found me, or, gat hold upon me. Where
this note: "
272
Lyranus hath In the Hebrew for hell is put
sheol, which doth not signify only hell, but signifieth also
the

pit or the grave ; and so it is taken here, by reason it followeth


upon death." The like explicatory repetition is
273
noted also
by the interpreters to have been used by the Prophet in
that other text alleged out of Psalm xvi. 10, as in Psalm
xxx. (al. xxix.) 3, 'Avyyaye? e% a$ov rrjv ^vxyv /ULOV, ecrwcrds

yue OLTTO TWV KaTafiaivovTwv ei? Xa/c/cor, Thou hast brought


up my soul from hell, thou hast kept me safe (or alive)

269 272
Suscitavit ilium Deus, solvens et ir- In Hebraeo pro inferno ponitur
ritans dolores mortis, hoc
quod per tot
est, sheol, quod non solum significat infer-
dolores mors effecerat, ut scilicet anima num, sed etiam significat fossam sive
separaretur a corpore. Fr. Ribera, in Hos. sepulturam ; et sic accipitur hie, eo quod
cap. xiii. num. 23. sequitur ad mortem. Nic. de Lyra, in
270
Quasi dicat, Ereptum a mortis mo- Psal. cxiv.
lestiis ; has enim dolores vocat, quanquam 273
maw rnboa pay bsD R. David
mortis epitheton possit esse dolor, quod
Kimchi, in Psal. xvi. 10. Hoc melius ex
morti conjungi soleat. Emman. Sa, No- sua consuetudine explicans, exaggerans-
tat, in Act. 24.
que, Nee dabis Sanctum tuum videre cor-
ii.
271In edit. Aldina et Vaticana ; nam ruptionem. Aug. Steuchus.
Complutensis habet v\oivia aSov.
V I I I .

I
OK LIMIHTS PAT RUM.

from those that go down to the pit ; and Job xxxiii. i2i>,
"liyytae &e ei? Odvarov r] ^ V X^ ^VTOV, V oe ^wrj avrov
ev ct'^7, His soul drew near unto death, and his life unto
hell. Whence that in the prayer of Jesus the son of Sirach
is taken, Ecclesiastic. -LI. ''idyyurev eias Oavdrov rj ^v^tj
juiov, KCLI *J '(wrf HJLOU rjv avveyyvs otooy KCLTW, My soul drew
near unto death, and my life was near to hell beneath.
And therefore for hell doth Pagnin, in his translation of
the 16th Psalm, put the grave, being therein also followed
in the interlineary Bible 274 approved by the censure of the

University of Louvaine ; and in the notes upon the same, that


go under the name of Vatablus, the word soul is, by com-
paring of this with Levit. xxi. 1, expounded to be the body.
So doth Arias Montanus directly interpret this text of the
Psalm " 275
Thou
:
my soul in the grave, that
shalt not leave
is to say, my body." Isidorus And
Clarius, in his annota-
tions upon the second of the Acts, saith that my soul in
hell in that place is, manner of speech
according to the
used by the " 276

11
Hebrews, put my body in the grave
for
or tomb; lest any man should think that Master Beza
was the first deviser or principal author of this interpre-
tation.
Yet him alone doth Cardinal Bellarmine single out here
to try his manhood upon, but doth so miserably acquit him-
self in the encounter, that it may well be doubted whether
he laboured therein more to cross Beza than to strive with
himself in the wilful suppressing of the light of his own
knowledge. For whereas Beza, in his notes upon Acts ii. 27,
had shewed out of the first and second verses of the 21st
chapter of Leviticus, and other places of Scripture, that the
Hebrew word V3 which we translate soul, is put for a
dead body ; the Cardinal, to rid himself handsomely of this,
which pinched him very shrewdly, telleth us in sober sadness,
" 277 that there is a difference betwixt the Hebrew
very great

274 Censorum Lovaniensium judicio ex- 276 Heb. pro Corpus meum in sepulchro
aminata, et Academiae suffragio compro- vel tumulo. Isid. Clarius in Act. ii.

bata. Biblia interim, edit. ann. 1572. 277 Dico multum inter u'93 et \J/vxi}i/
275 Non relinques animam meant in interesse. Nam u>33 est generalissima
sepulchro, (Psal. xvi. 10), id est, cor- vox, et significat sine ullo tropo tarn ani-
pus meum. Ar. Montan. in Hebraicae mam quam animal, imo etiam corpus ;
Linguae Idiotismis, voc. Anima, in Sacr. ut patet ex plurimis scripturse locis, &c.
Bibl. Apparat. edit. ann. 1372. Itaque in Levitico non ponitur pars pro
T
290 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

and the Greek ^v^y. For {#23" saith he, " is a most
general word, and signifieth without any trope as well the
soul as the living creature itself, yea, and the body itself
also, as by very many places of Scripture it doth appear."
And therefore in Leviticus, where that name is given unto
dead bodies, " one part is not put for another, to wit, the
soul for the body, but a word which doth usually signify
the body itself; or the whole at leastwise is put for the

part, namely, the living creature for the body thereof. But
in the second of the Acts
^w^y is
put, which signifieth the
soul alone."" Now, did not the Cardinal know, think you,
in his own conscience, that as in the second of the Acts

^v^rl put where the original text of the Psalm there


is

alleged hath ttfS> so on the other side in those places of

Leviticus, which he would fain make to be so different from


this, where the original text readeth ttfS3 there the Greek
also putteth
^v^? Do we not there read, 'i/ rals >
ov fjuavOifaroirrai, Levit. xxi. 1; and in the llth verse, 'E

^w%fi TT\euTr]Kvia OVK ei(T6\eva-6Tai 9 He shall not


Tracrri

go any dead soul, that is, to any dead body? The


into
Cardinal himself bringeth in Num. xxiii. 10, and xxxi. 35,
and Gen. xxxvii. 21, and Num. xix. 13, to prove that :#S3
doth signify either the whole man or his very body; and
must not the word ^vyy, which the Greek Bible useth in
all those places, of necessity also be expounded after the
same manner? Take, for example, that last place, which
is most
pertinent to the purpose, Num. xix. 13, lias o
a-TTTo/uiei/os TOV TeOvrfKoros OLTTO ^v^s dvOpcoTrov, which the

vulgar Latin rendereth, Omnis qui tetigerit humance animce


morticinum, and compare it with the llth verse, 'O CLTTTO-
/xevos TOV TeOvrjKOTOs Traces ^v^rjg dvOpa>7rov, He that
toucheth any soul of a dead man (that is, as the vulgar
Latin rightly expoundeth the meaning of it, Qui tetigerit
cadaver hominis, " He that toucheth the dead body of any
1
man, ') shall be unclean seven days ; and we shall need no
other proof, that the Greek word ^v^n being put for the
Hebrew ttf23 may signify the dead body of a man, even
as the Latin anima also doth in that place of the heathen

parte, id est, anima pro corpore, sed voca- vivens pro corpore. At Actor, ii.
ponitur
bulum quod ipsum corpus significare solet ; \l/vxrj, quae animam solam significat.
aut certe ponitur totum pro parte, id est, Bellarm. de Christ, lib. iv. cap. 12.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PATIIUM. 291

2T8
buried his " We
poet, Animamque sepulchro Condimus,
soul in the grave." The argument, therefore, drawn from
the nature of the word ^w^f), doth no way hinder that
in Acts ii. 27, Thou wilt not leave my soul, should be in-

terpreted either, Thou wilt not leave me, (as in the 31st
verse following, where the Greek text saith that his soul
was not left, the old Latin hath, He was not left,) or,
Thou wilt not leave my body, as the interpreters writing

upon that place, Gen. xLvi. 26, All the souls that came with
Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, do generally
expound it
by a synecdoche, whereby the one part
either
of the man
put for the whole person, (as we may see
is

in the Commentaries upon Genesis attributed to Eucherius,


lib. iii.
cap. 31, Alcuinus in Genes. Interrog. 269, Anselmus
Laudunensis in the interlineary gloss, Lyranus, and others,)
or by a metonymy, whereby that which is contained is put
for that which doth contain it; for illustration whereof
St Augustine very aptly bringeth in this example: " 279 As
we give the name of a church unto the material building
wherein the people are contained, unto whom the name of
the church doth properly appertain, by the name of the
church, that is, of the people which are contained, signi-
fying the place which doth contain them; so, because the
souls are contained in the bodies, by the souls here named
the bodies of the sons of Jacob may be understood. For
so may that also be taken, where the law saith that he is
defiled who shall go into a dead soul, (Levit. xxi. that
11),
is, to the carcase of a dead man that by the name of a dead
;

soul the dead body may be understood, which did contain the
soul ; even as when the people are absent which be the church,

yet the place nevertheless is still termed the church."


" 280 the word " as we
Yea, but hades," saith Bellarmine,
278
Virgil, ^neid. HI. defunct! cadaver ; ut nomine animac mor-
279 Sicut ergo appellamus ecclesiam ba- tuaemortuum corpus intelligatur, quod
silicam, qua continetur populus, qui vere animam continebat; quia et absente po-
appellatur ecclesia, ut nomine ecclesiae, id pulo, id est ecclesia, locus tamen ille

est,populi qui continetur, significemus nihilominus ecclesia nuncupatur. Au-


locum qui continet ; ita quod animae cor- gust. Epist. CLVII. ad Optat.
280
poribus continentur, intelligi corpora filio- Vox a'<V, ut supra ostendimus, sig-
rum per nominatas animas possunt. Sic nificatsemper infernum, nunquam sepul-
enim melius accipitur etiam illud, quod chrum. At corpus Christi non fuit in
lex inquinari dicit eum, qui intraverit inferno; ergo anima ibi fuit. Bellarmin.
super animam mortuam, hoc est, super de Christo, lib. iv. cap. 12.
T2
292 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

have shewed, doth always signify hell, and never the grave.
But the body of Christ was not in hell; therefore his soul
was there." If he had said that the word hades did either
rarely or never signify the grave, although he had not
therein spoken truly, yet it might have argued a little more

modesty and that he had taken some care also that


in him,
his latter should hold some better correspondency
conceits
with the former. For he might have remembered how, in
the place unto which he doth refer us, he had said that
281
the seventy-two Seniors did every where in their transla-
tion put hades instead of sheol, which, as he there hath
" is
told us, ordinarily taken for the place of souls under .

the earth, and either rarely or never for the grave." But
we have shewed, not only out of those dictionaries unto
282
which the Cardinal doth refer us, having forgotten first

to look into them himself, but by allegation of divers par-


ticular instances likewise, unto none of which he hath made

any answer, that hades in the translation of the seventy-two


Seniors is not rarely, but very usually taken for the place
of dead bodies. So for the use of the word infernus in
the Latin translation, Lyranus noteth that it is " 283 taken
in the Scripture" not for the place of the damned only,
but also " for the wherein dead men's carcases were
pit
laid." And among the Jesuits, Gaspar Sanctius yieldeth for
the general, that " ^infernus or hell is frequently in the

Scripture taken for burial ;" and in particular Emmanuel Sa


confesseth to be so taken in Gen. XLU. 38, 1 Sam. ii. 6,
it

Job and xxi. 13, Psalm xxix. 4, and Lxxxvii. 4, and


vii. 9,

xciii. 17, and cxiii. 17, and cxiv. 3, and CXL. 7,


(according
to the Greek division), Prov. i. 12, and xxiii. 14, Eccle-
siast. ix. 10, Cantic. viii. 6, Ecclesiastic. Li. 7, Isaiah xxviii. 15,
and Baruch ii. 17, Dan. iii. 88, (in the hymn of
xxxviii. 10,
the three children), and 2 Maccab. vi. 23. In all which
places, hades being used in the Greek, and inferi or infernus
285
in the Latin, it is
acknowledged by the Jesuit that the

281
Id. ibid. cap. 10. purgandum, et generaliter illorum qui non
282
Consulantur omnia dictionaria. Ib. admittuntur statim ad gloriam. Lyran.
cap. 12. in Esai. v.
83 284
Accipitur infernus in scriptura du- Est in scriptura frequens infernum
pliciter ;
uno modo pro fossa ubi ponuntur pro sepultura, atque adeo pro morte sumi.
mortuorum cadavera, alio modo pro loco Gasp. Sanct. Comment, in Act. ii. sect. 56.
ubi descendunt animae damnatorum ad 285 Emm. Sa, Notat. in Scriptur.
VIII.]
OF LI M BUS PATH I'M. 293

286
grave is meant, which Bede also is termed infernus
by
the " exterior So Alcuinus, moving the
hell."
exterior,

question how that speech of Jacob should be understood,


Gen. xxxvii. 35, / will go down to my son mourning into
" 287 these be the words of a troubled
hell, maketh answer, that
and grieving man amplifying his evils even from hence or ;

" the name of hell he the


else," saith he, by signified grave,
as if he should have said, I remain in sorrow until the earth
do receive me, as the grave hath done him."
So Priraasius, expounding the place, Hebrews xiii. 20,
" 288 God the Father," saith he,
"brought his Son from the
dead, that is to say, from hell or from the grave, accord-
ing to that which the Psalmist had foretold, Thou wilt not
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption" And Maximus
Taurinensis saith, that " 289 Mary Magdalene received a re-
proof, because after the resurrection she sought our Lord
in the grave; and not remembering his words, whereby he
had said that the third day he would return from hell,
she thought him still to be detained by the laws of hell."
And therefore, saith he, while " 290 she did seek the Lord in
the grave among the rest of the dead, she is
reprehended,
and it is said unto her, Why seekest thou him that liveth

among dead? that


the is to say, Why seekest thou him
among them that are in the infernal parts, who is now
known to have returned unto the supernal?
1 '' " 291
For he
that seeketh forhim either in the infernal places or in the
graves, tohim it is said, Why seekest thou him that liveth
among the dead?" And to the same purpose he applieth
those other words of our Saviour unto Mary, Touch me

286 niscens verborum ejus, quibus se ab in-


Bed. in Psal. xLviii.
287 Perturbati et dolentis verba sunt, feris tertia die rediturum esse dixerat,

mala sua etiam hinc exaggerantis vel :


putaret eum inferni legibus detineri.
etiam inferni nomine sepulchrum signifi- Maxim. Taurin. de Sepultur. Domini,
cavit, quasi diceret, In luctu maneo donee Homil. iv.
290
me terra suscipiat, sicut ilium sepulchrum. Unde et ilia Maria Magdalene, qua
Alcuin. in Gen. Interrog. CCLVI. Dominum inter ceteros defunctos in sepul-
888 Deus
ergo Pater eduxit Filium suum chro quaerebat, arguitur, et dicitur illi,
de mortuis, hoc est, de inferno vel de se- Quid quaeris viventem cum mortuis ? hoc
pulchro, juxta quod Psalmista praedixerat, est, Quid quasris apud inferos, quern redi-
Non dabis Sanctum tuum videre corrup- isse jam constat ad superos ? Id. de ead.
tionem. Primas. in Heb. xiii. Homil. in.
89
Maria Magdalene non leviter fuit 291Nam qui eum aut in infernis requi-
objurgata, cur post resurrectionem Domi- rit aut tumulis, dicitur ei, Quid quaeris
num fjuaererct in sepulchro, ct non rcmi- viventem cum mortuis ? Ibid.
294 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

not, for I am not yet ascended unto my Father. As if he


had said: " 292
Why dost thou desire to touch me, who,
while thou seekest me among the .graves, dost not as yet
believe that I am ascended to my Father? who, while thou
searchest for me among the infernals, dost distrust that I
am returned to the celestials? while thou seekest me among
the dead, dost not hope that I do live with my Father?"
Where his inferi and inferna do plainly import no more
but tumulos and sepulchra.
Hereupon Ruffinus, in his Exposition of
the Creed,
" 293
That in the of the Church
having given notice symbol
of Rome there is not added, He descended into hell, nor
in the East neither," adjoineth presently,
churches of the
" Yet the force" or " of the word seemeth to be
meaning
the same, in that he is said to have been buried." Which
some think to be the cause, why in all the ancient symbols
that are known to have been written within the first 600

years after Christ, (that of Aquileia only excepted, which


Ruffinus followed,) where the burial is expressed, there the
descending into hell omitted, as in that of Constantinople,
is

for example, commonly called the Nicene Creed ; and on


the other side, where the descent into hell is mentioned,
there the article of the burial is
passed over, as in that
of Athanasius. And to say the truth, the terms of burial
and descending into Scripture phrase, tend much
hell, in the
to the expressing of the selfsame thing; but that the bare

naming of the one doth lead us only to the consideration


of the honour of burial, the addition, of the other inti-
mateth unto us that which is more dishonourable in it. Thus
under the burial of our Saviour may be comprehended his
evracfuao-fios
and TcKfuj, his funeration and his interring,
which are both of them set down in the end of the 19th
chapter of the Gospel according to St John the latter in :

the last two verses, where Joseph and Nicodemus are said
to have laid him in a new sepulchre, wherein was never
293
292
Quid me contingere cupis, quae, me Sciendum sane est, quod in ecclesiae
dum inter tumulos quaeris, adhuc ad Pa- Romance symbolo non habetur additum,
trem ascendisse non credis ; quae, dum me Descenditad inferna sed nequein Orientis
;

inter inferna scrutaris,ad ccelestia rediisse ecclesiis habetur hie senno. Vis tamen
diffidis ; dum inter mortuos eadem videtur
quaeris, vivere verbi esse in eo, quod se-
cum Deo Patre meo non speras ? Id. de pultus dicitur. Ruffin. in Exposit. Sym-
Sepultur. Dom. Homil. iv. bol.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PAT HUM.

man yet laid; the former in the two verses going before,
where it is recorded, that they wound his body in linen
clothes with spices , /caucus e0o? eari rot? 'lovSaiois ei/ra-

(pia^eiv,
as it is the manner of
bury. For the Jews to
to the or funeration, belongeth the embalming
i>Ta0ia07/os?
of the dead body, and all other offices that are performed
unto it while it remains above ground. So Gen. L. 2, where
the physicians are said to have embalmed Israel, the Greek
translators render it,
eveTaC^iaaav o\ evTcKpiaaTai TOV 'Icrpa^X.
And when Mary poured the precious ointment upon our
Saviour, himself interpreteth this to have been done for his
294
funeration or burial. " 295 For it was a custom in times
" that
past," saith Eusebius, commonly called Emissenus,
the bodies of noblemen being to be buried, should first be
11
anointed with precious ointments and buried with spices.
And " 296
who knoweth not,
11
saith Stapleton, " that a
sepul-
11
chre an honour to the dead, and not a disgrace?
is But
the mention of sheol, (which hath special relation, as hath
been shewed, to the disposing of the dead body unto cor-
ruption), and so of hades 9 infernus, or hell, answering
thereunto, carrieth us further to the consideration of that
which the Apostle calleth the sowing of the body in cor-
ruption and dishonour, 1 Cor. xv. 42, 43. For which that
" 897 Did
place in St Augustine is worth the consideration:
11 "
not the hells, or the grave, give testimony unto Christ,
when, loosing their power, they reserved Lazarus (whom
they had received to dissolve) for four days together, that
they might restore him safe again when they did hear the
11
voice of their Lord commanding it? Where you may ob-
serve an hell appointed for the dissolution of dead men's
bodies, the descending into which, according to Ruffinus's
note, differeth little or nothing from the descending into
the grave.

294
Matt. xxvi. 12 ; Markxiv.8; John sceleribus sepulchra negari? Stapleton,
xii. 7. Antidot. in 1 Cor. xv. 55.
897 Nonne inferna Christo testimonium
295
Mos enim antiquitus fuit, ut nobilium
perhibuerunt, quando jure suo perdito
corpora sepelienda unguentis pretiosis un-
gerentur, et cum aromatibus sepelirentur.
Lazarum, quern dissolvendum acceperant,
Euseb. Emiss. Homil. Dominic, in Ramis integrum per quatriduum reservaverunt,
Palmarum. ut incolumem redderent cum vocem Do-

96
mini sui jubentis audirent ? Orat. contra
Quis sepulchrum mortuo ho-
nescit
Tom.
Judaeos, Pagan, et Arian. cap. 17,
nori esse, non dedecori, et quorundam
vi. Oper. Augustin.
296 ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

In the 13th of the Acts St Paul preacheth unto the


298
Jews, that God raised up his Son from the dead, not
to return now any more unto corruption ; and yet presently

addeth, that therein was verified that prophecy in the Psalm,


299
Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption;
implying thereby, that he descended in some sort for a time
into although in that time he did not suffer
corruption,
corruption.
300
And "
do not wonder," saith St Ambrose,
" how he should descend into
corruption whose flesh did
not see corruption. He did descend indeed into the place
of corruption, who pierced the hells; but being uncorrupted
he shut out corruption." For as the word r\T\W> which the
Prophet useth in the Psalm, doth signify as well the pit or
place of corruption as the corruption itself, so also the word
St Luke doth express the same, is used
Sia<p9opa, whereby
by the Greek interpreters of the Old Testament to signify
not the corruption itself alone, but the very place of it

likewise. As where we read in Psalm vii. 15, He is fallen


into the pit which he made ; and Psalm ix. 16, The heathen
are sunk down in the pit that they made ; and Proverbs
xxvi. 27, Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: Aquila
in the first place, the Septuagint in the second, Aquila and

Symmachus in the third, retain the Greek word Sia<p9opd.


So that our Saviour descending into sheol, hades, or hell,
may thus be understood to have descended into corruption,
"
that is to
say, into the pit or place of corruption," as
St Ambrose interpreteth it, although he were free in the
meantime from the passion of corruption. And because
^"IfcW and T\TW) cr'Siys and SiaffiOopd, hell and corruption,
have reference to the selfsame thing, therefore doth the
Arabic interpreter, 3 translated by Junius in Acts ii. 31,
l

(or, as the Arabian divideth the book, Acts iv. 10), con-
found them together, and retain the same word in both the
" He was not left
parts of the sentence, after this manner :

298
MrjKCTt /meXXovra viro<rTpe(])6LV els-
corruptionem incorruptus exclusit. Am-
cia<t>Qopdv. Act. xiii. 34. bros.de Virginib. lib. iii.
99
Ou &o'<reis TOV oariov <rov ISelv 8ia-
301
Ann. 1578, although in the Arabic
(frQopdv. Ibid. vers. 35, ex Psal. xvi. 10. Testament printed by Erpenius, ann. 1616,
00
Ne mireris quomodo descenderit in
the terms be varied, \ I
al-haiviyato,
corruptionem, cujus caro non vidit cor-
ruptionem. Descendit quidem in locum being put for hell, and phalada
corruptionis, qui penetravit infcrna; sed for corruption.
Till.]
OF LIMliUS PATKUM. 29?

in perdition, neither did his flesh see perdition." Even as


in the 29th Psalm (or the 30th, according to the division
302
of the Hebrews,) the Arabic readeth L_ax^ al-giaMmo,
or hell, where the Greek hath $ia(f)9opai>,
the Hebrew r\TW
and the Chaldee paraphrase NJTYQp JT1 that is, the house
of the grave.
Athanasius, in his book of the Incarnation of the Word,
written against the Gentiles, observeth, that when God threat-
ened our first parents that whatsoever day they did eat of
the forbidden "
fruit they should
die the death," by
" " that death" he signified,
^dying the they should not
only die, but also remain in the corruption of death ;" and
that our Saviour, coming to 304 free us from this corruption,
"
kept his own body uncorrupted, as a pledge and an
evidence of the future resurrection of us all;" which hath
wrought such a contempt of death in his disciples, that,
as he addeth afterwards, we may " 3C5
see men which are

by nature weak, leaping or dancing unto death, being not

aghast at the corruption thereof, nor fearing the descents


into hell." So the Grecians sing in their Liturgy at this
" 306
The of hell was dis-
day: corruption- working palace
solved when thou didst arise out of the grave, O Lord."
And " ^The stone is rolled the
again, away, grave is
emptied. Behold, corruption is trodden under by life. That
which was mortal is saved by the flesh of God. Hell
mourneth." For God, saith 308 Origen, " will neither leave

302 306
Psalter Arabic, edit. Genua?, ann. "Oral/ yap idy rts dvQptoTrovs daQe-
1516, et Romae, ann. 1619. Verum in i/ets ovras Trj <f)v(rei, irpoiriidioVTas eis
duobus meis MSS. exemplaribus habetur TOV QdvaTov, Kai /iir; /caTa-7rT|<ro-oj/Tas

hie avTOv TtjV (f>6opdv, fjLt^Se


-rets ei/ aSov naf)-
^iXs^Ji al-halaco, quod perditio-
o'<5ov &C. Ibid. p. 59-
^eiXttui/T-as,
nem vel interitum notat. 56
KaT\y0Tj Kai TO TOV aSov <f>6opo-
)3
To oe QavaTca aTroQavclvOe, TL dv TTOLOV fiaaiXeLov, aVao-raj/Tos e/c Td<frov
ttXXo 6tt) /
TO p.1] fJiOVOV dTToQvrj(TKlV, dXXa Graeci in Octoecho Anasta-
o-ou, Ku/ote.
Kai ev Trj TOU QavaTov <p6opa ciafjLweiv ; simo.
Athan. de Incarnat. Verbi, Tom. i. 307 'O Xl'0OS KKV\LOTai, 6 TCt0OS K6/C6-
Oper. Graeco-Lat. p. 39. vuiTiiC ideTe TtjV tptiopdv Trj TraTijBel-
"^UOTJ
304
TOUTO ydp i]v /cara TOV Qavd~rov crav,&C. TO Qvt]TOv areauxrTai vapid Geow*
Tpoiraiov, Trai/TCts iria-Tioa-ao-Qat Trjv Trap' o adr]? Qpt]vel. Cumulas. in Graecorum
Pentecostario.
KO.I \OLTTOV T(DV (TtafJidTUJV d 308
TJJJ/ Neque nostras animas
derelinquet
t;s Trdcriv wtnrcp eve^vpov Kai in inferno, nee dabit nos in
comiptione in
T/}S eiri Traj/ras e<ro/Lie'// perpetuum manere sed qui ilium post
:

Tr\pt]Kev atpQap-rov TO eavTov crwfia. Ibid. diem tertium revocavit ab inferis, et nos
p. 54. rcvocabit in temporc opportune et
; qui
ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

our souls in hell, nor suffer us to remain for ever in cor-

ruption; but he that recalled Him after the third day from
hell, will recall us also in fit time ; and he who granted unto
him that his flesh should not see corruption, will grant also
unto us, not that our flesh shall not see corruption, but
that in fit time it shall be freed from corruption."
It may here also further be observed, that although
the Grecians do
distinguish whereof we
the funeration,
speak, and the interring, by the different terms of evTa<f>iacriuios
and rcKpi), yet the Latins do use the selfsame word of
sepulture to denote the one as well as the other. And
therefore in Gen. L. 2, where we read according to the
Hebrew, that Joseph commanded his servants the physicians
to embalm his father, the ancient Latin translation made
out of the Greek expressed it thus Diocit Joseph servis :

suis ut em "
sepultoribus, sepelirent pair ejus. Joseph gave
order to his servants the buriers that they should bury
his father." Upon which place St Augustine giveth this
" 309 The Latin
note: tongue doth not find how it should
fitly express
the Greek word For they are
evra^iacrra^.
not they that bury, that is, commit to the earth the bodies
of the dead ; which is not in Greek but eOa^av. everafyiaaav)
Those evTCKpiacrTctl therefore do that which is
performed
to the bodies that are to be interred, either by seasoning or
drying or lapping or binding them; in which work the care
of the Egyptians exceedeth all others. Where therefore it is
said that they buried him, we ought to understand that they
dressed him ; and what is spoken of his forty days' burial
is to be taken for this cure or dressing. For he was not
buried but where he commanded himself to be buried:"
namely, in the land of Canaan, not, where this was done,
in the land of
Egypt.
illi donavit ut non videat caro ejus cor- ergo ei/Ta$iao-Tal id agunt quod exhi-
ruptionem, nobis donabit, non quidem ut betur corporibus humandis, vel condiendo
non videat caro nostra corruptionem, sed vel siccando vel involvendo et alligando ;
ut liberetur a corruptione tempore oppor- in quo opere maxime JEgyptiorum cura
tuno. Orig. Tract, xxxv. in Matth. praecellit. Quod ergo dicit etiam sepe-
cap. xxvii. lierunt, curaverunt intelligere debemus.
309
Non invenit lingua Latina quemad- Et quod dicit quadraginta dies sepulturae,
modum appellaret ei/ra^iao-Tas. Non ipsius curationis accipiendae sunt. Sepul-
enim ipsi sepeliunt, id est, terrae man- tus enim ille non est, nisi ubi se manda-
dant corpora mortuorum Augustin. Locution, de
:
quod non est verat sepeliri.
Grace cj/errtcfn'ao-ai/ sed e'Oaaj/. Illi Genesi, num. 203.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PATRUM. 299

And thus in the New Testament we still find this

eyTa0moyjiO9
in the vulgar Latin rendered by the term of
sepulture, and in our common English translations by the
word of burial. As in the speech of our Saviour touching
his anointment by Mary, Matth. xxvi. 12, Ad sepeliendum
me fecit, She did it for my burial Mark xiv. 8, Prcevenit
;

ungere corpus meum in sepulturam, She is come afore-


hand to anoint my body to the burying; John xii. 7, Sinite
illam, sepultures mece servet illud, which we
ut in diem
translate,Let her alone, against the day of my burying
hath she kept this. And in the history afterwards, John
xix. 40, Acceperunt ergo corpus Jesu, et ligaverunt illud
linteis cum aromatibus, sicut mos est Judceis sepelire, Then
took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes
with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
Which rite of funeration being so carefully recorded by
the evangelists, and by the old Latin interpreter expressly
named his sepulture, and withal made a distinct act from
his laying in the grave, their opinion wanteth not some
probability, who think that in the Latin Creed (for that
which we commonly call the Creed of the Apostles was
proper to the Latin Church, and both for the brevity of the
matter and the frame of the words diverse from the Eastern
symbols), in the Latin Creed, I say, sepultus, or buried,
might answer to the funeration, as in those texts cited out
of the Gospel, and Descendit ad inferna or infer os, He
descended into hell, to his laying in the grave. Which two
310
distinct things Ramus also noteth in the French tongue to
be expressed by two distinct words, ensevelir and enterrer.
Neither is it any whit strange unto them that are con-
versant in the writings of the ancient doctors, to hear that
our Saviour by his going to the grave descended into hell,
spoiled hell, and brought away both his own body and the
bodies of the saints from hell. We find the question moved
by Gregory Nyssen, in his Sermon upon the Resurrection
of Christ: " 311 How our Lord did himself at the dispose

10
P. Ramus in Commentar. Relig. |
TTJS KUI TO> Trapadeivu) <rvv TW \y-
yrj<;,

Christ. lib. i.
cap. 14. Kai -rats TraTpamts Depart. Greg.
(TTrj,
11
ZijTeo; yot/o TOUS <i\o/Ka6e<rre/ooi>s Nyss. in Pascha, et Christi Resurrect.
64KOS, TTaJS fV TM O.VTU> \pOVU> Tplfflv Tom. ii. Oper. Graeco-Lat. p. 823.
cavTov o ~K.vptos diowtriv, Trj TC Kapfiin
300 ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

same time three manner of ways, both in the heart of the


earthy Matth. xii. 40, and in paradise with the thief,
Luke xxiii. 43, and in the hands of his Father, Luke
" 312 For neither will
xxiii. 46." any man say," quoth he,
" that
paradise is in the places under the earth, or the
places under the earth in paradise, that at the same time
he might be in both; or that those" infernal "places are
called the hand of the Father." Now for the last of these,
he saith, the case is 313 plain, that being in paradise he must
needs be in his " Father's hands" also but the greatest ;

doubt he maketh to be, " 314 how he should" at the same


time be both in " hades and in paradise." For with him,
the " heart of the earth," the places " under the earth," and
hades or hell, are in this question one and the same thing.
And his final resolution is, that in this hell Christ remained
with his dead body, when with his soul he brought the
thief into the possession of paradise " 315 For
by his body," :

saith he, " wherein he sustained not the corruption that


followeth upon death, he destroyed him that had the power
of death ; but by his soul he led the thief into the entrance
of paradise. And these two did work at the selfsame time,
theGodhead accomplishing the good by them both namely, ;

by the incorruption of the body the dissolution of death,


and by the placing of the soul in his proper seat the
bringing back of men unto paradise again."
The like sentence do we meet withal in the same
Father's Epistle unto Eustathia, Ambrosia, and Basilissa:
" 316 His
body he caused by dispensation to be separated

312 Oure yap ev viroyftovioi's eliroi TIS elvoo'ov. Kal TO Svo /cara TUVTOV evep-
dv TOV TrapaSeiffov, OVTC ev irapaceiorta yetTai, Si d/j.<j>oTepu)vT^S OeoTtiTos TO
TO. WCTTC /caret TUVTOV ev dyaQov KaTopQovcrt]^' cid fitv T^S TOV
v'jro'xQovia^
\e1pa ro ^ TaT/os dtyQapa-ias Tr\v TOV QavaTov
'
dfjufrorepois elvai' fj acop.aTO's

XeyeaOai TavTa. Ibid. KaTaXvcriv' Sid T^S ^^x^s* T^S Trpo?


313 TOV
AijXov OTI 6 ev irapao'ei<ru> yei/o/iei/os Tr\v iSiav e<rTiav eTreiyo/JLevrj^, TJI/ eirl
Tals TraTpcoais ira'vToos evoiat.Ta.Tai ira- 'jrapdBeiorov TCOV dvQpcoiroav eTravo&ov.

Aa'/uais Ibid. p. 825.


; Ibid. p. 825.
314 316 To fJLev <rw[Jia TTJS V U X^ S ^ La ^ ev X-
TCLVTOV Kal ev TO) aSy Kal
Ilajs /ca-ra

cv irapaoeiaw 6 Ku/oios ; Ibid. p. 824. Orjvai KaT olKOVOfjiiav eTroiriarev' j


<5e dfj.e-

315
Aia fjiev yap TOV <ra>/naTos, ev a> pia-Tos Beortjs, aVa^ dvaKpaQelaa Tip
TTJI; e/c TOV Qavarov KaTatpQopdv OVK viroKeifievu) , ovTe TOV traj'/iaros OVTC TT/S

eSefcaTo, /caT>;/oyt)(re TOV e\ovTa TOV 6a- dXXa fMSTa fiei> TTJ<:

VO.TOV TO KjOtrros' did Se T^S \l/u-)(rjs cooo- irapadeio-w yiveTai OOOTTOI-


OJ

TToirive TU> XJJO-T/; TY\V CTTI TOV Trapd(iei<rov Sid TOV XyvTOV TO?S a'i/P/oa)7rti/ois
OF 1. 1.\1151IN I'ATUIM. 301
VIII.]

from his soul but the invisible Deity being once knit with
;

that subject, was neither disjoined from the body nor the

soul, but was with the soul in paradise, making way by the
thief for an entrance unto mankind thither; and with the

body in the heart of the earth, destroying him that had the
power of death." Wherewith we may compare that place
which we meet withal in the works of St Gregory, Bishop
of Neocaesarea, wherein our Saviour is brought in speaking
" 317 I must descend into the
after this manner: very bottom
of hell for the dead that are detained there. I must
by
the three days' death of my flesh overthrow the power of
long-continuing death. I must light the lamp of BODY my
unto them which sit in darkness and in the shadow of death."
And that of St Chrysostom, who is accounted also to be
the author of that other sermon attributed unto St Gregory :

" 318 How were the brazen


gates broken, and the iron bars
burst ? By his BODY. For then appeared first a body
immortal and dissolving the tyranny of death itself; whereby
was shewed that the force of death was taken away, not
that the sins of those who died before his coming were
dissolved." And that which we read in another place of
his works: u319 He hell into he
spoiled descending hell;
made it bitter when it tasted of his flesh : which Isaiah
understanding beforehand, cried out, saying, Hell was made
bitter, meeting thee below. (So the Septuagint render the

Tr\v eiffooov, did de TOV GIO/JLCITOS fv TTJ ou TWV irpo T^S Tra/ooutrtas
dvt]priiJLfvt]v,

Kapftia Tfj<i yj/s dvaipov<ra TOV TO K/OCC'TOS avTov TeTeXevTtjKOTuiv Ta dfiapTi'jfJiaTa


eyov-ra TOV QavaTov. Id. in Epist. ad XeXv/meva. Chrysost. in Matth. cap. xi.
Eustath. ibid. p. 1993. Horn, xxxvi. edit. Graec. vel xxxvu.
317 Aei KaTeXQclv Koi eis avTov TOV Latin.
fie
319
TOV aoov TrvQfJLevUj f>t.d TOUS e/cei KCLTC- 'Efc-oXao-e TOV aStjv o KdTeXQwv els

I/CK/OOUS. del /ue TTJ T/cwj/ne'/ao) TOV aoi}v. eiriKpavev avTov, yevadfievos
TT/S e/Z7/s <raKpos KaQeXelv TOV (yevad/jievov reponendum, ex MS. Con-
iroXv^poviov Qa.vd.TOv TO /c/oaVos. del fie stantinopolitano) Trj<s ao/o/cos O.VTOV. Kai
TOV trw/iaTos fj.ov TOV Xv^yov dvdfyai TOIS TOVTO irpoXafitav 'H<ratas efiorjaev' 'O
fv OTKOTCL Kai ffKia QavuTOV Ka6rj/iei/ois. a5t)5, (pt]<nv, eTTiKpdvQr], trvvavTqaras <roi

Gregor. Neocaes. Serm. in Theophania, KaT<a eTTiKpdvQi], Kai ydp KaQtipeQr)' CTTL-
p. 111. Oper. edit. Mogunt. et inter Oper. KpdvQti, Kal ydp eveirai'xQti' eXafte o-to/xa,
Chrysost. Tom. vn. edit. Savil. p. 660. *cai 0eo) irepieTv^ev' eXafie yf/v, Kai avv-
18
Iltis ouv orvvTpiftt]<rav TruXai \a\- ovpavu>' eXafiev oirep e/3\7re, /cat
7/i/TTjo-ei/

TTfTTTlOKeV ofteV OUK eftXc'TTC. Ofat. CatC-


ota TOV <ra>yU(ZTOs auTou. TOTC ydp Trput- chetic. in S. Pascha, Tom. v. Oper. Chry-
TOV <5ei)(6T} o-ai/za dOdvaTov Kal StaXvov sost. edit. Savil. p. 916, et in Graecorum
avTov QavaTOV TI]V TvpavviSa. a\\a>9 de, Pentecostario ubi pro prima voce CKO-
:

TOVTO SeiKWffL TOV QavaTOv TTJI; iayyv \ao-e rectius habetur e<r/cu\eu<re.
302 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

words, xiv.Isaiah
19.) It was made bitter, for it was

destroyed was made


; bitter, for
it it was mocked ; it
received a BODY, and light upon God; it received earth,
and met with heaven; it received that which it saw, and
fell from that which it did not see."

Thus Caesarius expounding the parable, Luke xiii. 21,


wherein the kingdom of God is likened unto leaven which
a, woman took and hid in three pecks of flour, till all was
" 320
the three pecks of flour are, first,
leavened, saith, that
the whole nature of mankind, secondly, death, and after
that, hades; wherein the divine BODY being hidden by
BURIAL, did leaven all unto resurrection and life." Where-
upon he bringeth in our Saviour in another place speaking
thus: " 321 I will therefore be buried for their sakes that
be in hades; I will therefore as it were with a stone strike
the gates thereof, bringing forth the prisoners in strength,
as my servant David hath said." So St Basil asketh,
46 322
How we do accomplish the descent into hell?" and
answereth, that we do it in " imitating the BURIAL of Christ
in baptism. For the bodies of those
that be baptized are
as were buried in the water," saith he.
it St Hilary maketh
mention of Christ's " 323 flesh quickened out of hell by himself."
And Arator in like manner :

384
Infernum Dominus cum destructurus adiret,
Detulit inde suam spoliato funere carnem.

" When the Lord went to hell to destroy it, he brought from
THENCE his own flesh, spoiling the grave."
" in his
Carpathius addeth, that grave he spoiled

320
'A\evpov Be OOLTO. rpia, irptarov fiev
TO) vSaTi TWV
Basil, de Sancto,
tj oratrcc fipoTtav </>uo-t, SevTepov Se b Spiritu
Qdva.TO<3, fJLfrd TOVTO 6 a't)s, ev (5 eyupv- cap. 15.
323 non ex conceptu
<f>V 5lGC TCKpfjS TO QfloV <TWJU.a <j>Vp
Et haec vermis, vel

irdvTa els ai/a<rra<rii/ /cat wrjv. Caesa- communium originum vivens, vel e pro-
cxcvu. fundis terras vivus emergens, ad significa-
rius, Dial. iv. Quaest.
331
TovTta TtHpfao/j-ai Bid TOUS ev adrj tionem assumptae et vivificataa per se etiam
ex inferno carnis professus Hilar. de
TvyxdvovTas' TOVTW olovel ireTpa tra-
est.

rda> eKeivov -rruXas, eaya>i/ Treiredrj/ie- Trinitat. lib. xi.


324
vous ev dvbpeiq, /ca0a>s (frriviv 6 Aaui5 o Arator. Histor. Apostolic, lib. i.
325 Philo in Cantic. v. 2, 'EyoJ /ca6-
oi/ceTtjs fjLov. Id. Dialog, in. Qu33st.
CLXVI. v8<a, K.o.1 tj KapSia fiov dy/ouiri/et.] 'Ev
322 TW
Ilwe ovv KaropQovfjLev rtjv eh aSrfV Ta(f)tp (TKvXevovcra TOV aSrj. inter frag-
KaQoSov ; fjn/novfievoi T-f\v Ta^tjv TOV X/oi- menta Eusebii in Cantic. a Meursio edita,
CTTOV, did TOV /3a7TTi<rfiaTos. olovel yap p. 52.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PATRUM. 303

hell." Whereupon the Emperor Leo, in his oration upon


32fj
the burial Saviour, of our it
by wisheth us to honour
adorning ourselves with virtues, and not by putting him in
the grave again " For it behoved," saith he, " that this
:

should be once done, to the end that hell might be spoiled ;


and it was done." And the Grecians retain the commemo-
ration hereof in their Liturgies unto this day; as their
Octoechon Anastasimon and Pentecostarian do testify, wherein
such hymns and prayers as these are frequent " 327 Thou :

didst receive death in thy flesh, working thereby immortality


for us, O Saviour; and didst dwell in the grave, that thou

mightest free us from hell, raising us up together with thy-


self."
" 328
When
thou wast put in the tomb as a mortal
man, the keepers of hell-gates shook for fear ; for, having
overthrown the strength of death, thou didst exhibit incor-
the dead " 3a9
ruption to all
by thy resurrection." Although
thou didst descend into the grave as a mortal man, O Giver
of Life, yet didst thou dissolve the strength of hell, O Christ,

thyself, whom
it had also
raising up the dead together with
swallowed; and didst exhibit the resurrection, as God, unto
all that in faith and desire do
"
magnify thee." ^Thou,
who by thy three days' burial didst spoil death, and by thy
life-bringing resurrection didst raise up corrupted man, O
Christ our God, as a lover of mankind, to thee be glory."
" M1 Thou who
by thy three days' burial didst spoil hell,
and by thy resurrection didst save man, have mercy upon
"
me." ^By thy three days' burial the enemy was spoiled,
326
TtfjLtiaruifjLev Se Kai rj'/xels TTJV Qeiav Xuaas, X/OIO-TC, avveyeipa? veKpovi, oDs
e OUK o0oi/ais Kai vvyKaTCTrie' Kai dvda-Tacriv Train

, ovde Ta<a> Tcapear^ei <Js Geos, Tots ev -7ri<rrei Kai


TCS* a'-7ra yap TOVTO virep TOV (TKV\ev- Trotiia are p.eya\vvov<ri.
30
Qijvai TOV aot]V edei yeveaQai, Kai yeyo- TT; TpitifJiepcp Ta(p?i trov <TKuXeu<ras
vev' d\\' fj/uas CCUTOUS 7re/oi/3a'XXoi/Tes TOV QdvaTov, Kai <pdapevTa TOV dvQptairov
a'/oeT-ais. Leo Imp. Horn. i. TTJ "^(ariipopco eyep<rei. <rov
327 QdvaTov Ka.Te8eo) orapK.1, tos
riu.1v a'0a-

vacriavTrpayiiaTevtrdu.evo'S) <ra)Trj/o, Kai ev (TOi.


331
rd(pu> a>KTj<ras, 'Iva tj/uas TOV aoov eXeu- 'O T/otTjjue/uto Ta<^fj (TOV

TOV a'&ji/, Kai TT; eyeparei (TOV <ra>tra TOI/


8
"E^pi^ctv aSov 7ruXo)/ooi, OTC ev T> dvQptaTTov, e\erja-6v fie.
332 (TOV o
fivi]fieita cos OfrjTos icaTTe0Tjs* Kai yap TpitifJ.epu> Ta<f>fj e(TKV\ev6ij
TOV QavaTov KaTapyqaras Tr\v ia"%vv, -roTs e^0jo6s, CK Tail/ TOW adov Secr/jifav dircXu-
raaiv dtpdapaiav Trapevxes TTJ 0Tj<rai/ veKpol, veveKptoTai o 0ai/aTOS,
(TOV. eKei/u$0tj TO ftaaiXeia TOV aSov' Sio ere,

Ei /cat ev Td(pa> K-aT//X0es a5s 0i/t}TO5, ^aio^oTa, ev v/j.vois Tt/uaJi/Tes u.eya\vvo-


, dXXa TOU aSov TJJV 'KT^VV oie-
304 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP-

the dead loosed from the bands of hell, Death deaded, the

palaces of hell voided therefore in hymns do we honour


:

and magnify O Giver of Life." " ^Thou wast put in


thee,
the tomb, being voluntarily made dead, and didst empty all
the palaces of hell, O immortal King, raising up the dead
with thy resurrection." " ^Thou who
spoiledst hell by
thy burial, be mindful of me."
Hitherto also belongeth that of Prudentius, in his Apo-
theosis :

tumuloque inferna refringens


Regna resurgentes secum jubet ire sepultos.
Coelum habitat, terris intervenit, abdita rumpit
Tartara: vera fides; Deus est, qui totus ubique est.

"
Where, in saying that our Saviour by his grave did break
the infernal and " commanded those that were
up kingdoms,"
buried to rise up with him," he hath reference unto that
part of the history of the Gospel wherein it is recorded,
that The graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints
which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his
resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared
unto many. Matth. xxvii. 52, 53. Upon which place St
thus " 335
Hilary writeth Enlightening the darkness of death
:

and shining in the obscure places of hell, by the resurrection


of the saints that were seen at the present he took away the

spoils of death itself." To the same effect writeth St Am-


brose also: "^Neither did his sepulchre want a miracle.
For when he was anointed by Joseph, and buried in his
tomb, by a new kind of work he that was dead himself did
open the sepulchres of the dead. His body indeed did lie
in the grave, but he himself, being free among the dead,
did give liberty unto them that were placed in hell, dissolving

333 336
'ETe6)S ev fJLvr]/j.eiu), o ejcoucrta)? ye- Sed nee sepulchrum quidem ejus
vop.evo'i veKpos, KOI TO. (3a.(ri\eia. TOV aSov, miraculo caret. Nam cum esset unctus a

/3ao-i\eu dftdvaTe, airavra e/cei/xras, i/e- Joseph, et in ejus monumento sepultus ;

Kpous TTJ dvacrTacrei eyeipas TTI cry. novo opere quodam ipse defunctus de-
334
Mj/fj<r0jjTi (J.ov, o TOV adi]v ovcuXeuo'as functorum sepulchra reserabat. Et cor-
Tfl Tacfifj (TOV. Bibliothec. Patr. edit, pus quidem ejus jacebat in tumulo ; ipse
ann. 1589, Tom. vi. col. 128. autem inter mortuos liber remissionem
335
Illuminans enim mortis tenebras, in inferno positis, soluta mortis lege, do-
et infernorum obscura collustrans, in nabat. Erat enim caro ejus in monu-
sanctorum ad praesens conspicatorum re- mento, sed virtus ejus operabatur e ccelo.
surrectione mortis ipsius spolia detrahe- Ambros. de Incarnat. cap. 5.
bat. Hilar. in Matth. Canon 33.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PATRUM. 305

the law of death. For his flesh was in the tomb, but his
power did work from heaven." Which may be a sufficient
commentary upon that sentence which we read in the expo-
sition of the Creed attributed unto St Chrysostom:
" 33T He
descended into hell, that there also he might not want a
miracle. For many bodies of the saints arose with Christ."
" 338 HELL
Namely, rendering up the BODIES of the saints alive
again," as either the same, or another author that goeth
under the like name of Chrysostom, doth elsewhere directly
affirm which is a further confirmation of that which we
:

have heard delivered by Ruffinus touching the exposition


of the article of the Descent into hell, that the substance
thereof seemeth to be the same with that of the burial. For
what other hell can we imagine it to be but the grave, that
thus receiveth and giveth up the bodies of men departed
this life?
And hitherto also may be referred that famous saying
" Christ's
of descending alone, and ascending with a multi-
tude," which we meet withal in four several places of anti-
quity. First, in the heads of the sermon of Thaddaeus,
as they are reported by Eusebius out of the Syriac records
of the city of Edessa: " ^He was crucified and descended
into hades or hell, and brake the rampire never broken
before since the beginning; and rose again, and raised up
with him those dead that had slept from the beginning ;

and descended alone, but ascended to his Father with a


great multitude." Secondly, in the Epistle of Ignatius unto
the Trallians: " 310 He was truly, and not in opinion, cruci-
337 Descendit ad
infernum, ut et ibi a auTou ;
Thaddaeus apud Euseb. Hist.
miraculo non vacaret. Nam multa corpo- Eccles. lib. i.
cap. ult.
340
ra sanctorum resurrexerunt cum Christo. 'AXt)0toS Se, Kai ou 6\>KTj'<rei, ecrrau/owBt;,
Homil. ii. in Symbol. Tom. v. Latin. /cat aTreQave, pXeirovTwv ovpaviwv, Kai

Oper. Chrysostom. eTnyei(av,KaLKaTa')(Qovi(av' ovpavitov fiev,


18
Reddunt inferi corpora rediviva cos TU)V dfTiofjidTtav tyixrewv' eTriye'uav Se,

sanctorum ; et in occursum auctoris in- 'lovcalwv Kai 'Ptofiatcoi/, Kai Ttav irapo'i/-

feros penetrantis temporalem accipiunt j


TWV KUT eKelvo /v-ai/oou, (TTavpovfievov TOV
beatae animae commeatum. Homil. iv. !
Kvpiov KaTayQoviwv &e, TOU irXjj-

de Proditore, et Pass. Dominic. Tom. 0ous TOU (TwavaffTavros TO) Kupiw. IIoX-
in. Latin. Oper. Chrysost. Xa yap, (pii<ri, rrtofjLaTa
Ttav KeKOi/j.t)fJLfV(av
39
Titos taTavputftt], Kai <caxe'/3jj els TOV dyitav rjyepQri, TUIV fiv^fJLei(av dvew-^Qev-
a'<$rji/, Kai die&xia-e ({tpay/JLOV TOV e aiai- TMV. Kai KaTtjXQev eis adrjv /xovos, dvij\6e
yos /ntj <rxio-6e'i/Ta, Kai aWcrrTj, Kai <rvv- 6e fierd 7rXt/0ous, Kai ea^icre TOV aV
tjyeipe i/e\/oous TOUS aV aitavtav KeKoi/j.tj- Qpay/tdv, Kai TO /ue<roToi)(oi/
fie'i/ous ;
<cai -TraJs KaTe/3; /xovos, ai/6/3rj de ~. CUTOU eXu<re. Ignat. Epist. II. ad Tral-
roXXou oxXou 7T/30? TOV TTUTepa lian.

u
306 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [(3HAP.

fied, and died; those that were in heaven and in earth and
under the earth beholding him: those in heaven, as the
incorporeal natures; those in earth, to wit, the Jews and
the Romans, and such men as were present at that time
when the Lord was crucified ; those under the earth, as
the multitude that rose up together with the Lord; for
bodies" saith he, " the saints which
many of slept arose,
the graves being opened. And he descended into hades or
hell alone, but returned with a multitude, and brake the
rampire that had stood from the beginning, and overthrew
the partition thereof." Thirdly, in the Disputation of Ma-
carius, Bishop of Jerusalem, in the first general Council of
Nice " S41 After death we were carried into hades or hell.
:

Christ took upon him this also, and descended voluntarily


into it ; he was not detained as we, but descended only.
For he was not subjected unto death, but was the Lord of
death; and descending alone, he returned with a multitude.
For he was that spiritual grain of wheat, falling for us into
the earth, and dying in the flesh; who, by the power of
his Godhead, raised up the temple of his body according
to the Scriptures, which brought forth for fruit the resur-
rection of all mankind." Fourthly, in the Catechises of Cyril,
" M2 I believe
Bishop of Jerusalem, whose words are these:
that Christ was raised from the dead. For of this I have
many witnesses, both out of the divine Scriptures, and from
the witness and operation even unto this day of him that
rose of him, I say, that descended into hades or
again;
hell but ascended with many.
alone, For he did descend
unto death ; and many bodies of the saints that slept were
raised by him." Which resurrection he seemeth afterward

341 Macar. Hierosolym. apud Gelasium Cy-


Kcrre<e/ooyijie6a /UCTCE TOV QdvaTov
els TOV adr)V dvede^aTO "/cat TOVTO, Kai Cone. Nicsen. lib. i. cap. 23.
zicen. in Act.

e/couo"ia>s el? avTov. ov KCLTt]- al. 24.


KaTTj\Qev
342
a'XXa KaTrjXQev. ov Hi<TTev<a oTt Kai Xpttrros e/c veKptav
ve)(Qtj Kaddirep tj/neis,

yap rfv info/cei/uei/os TU> QavaTw, dXX' e- eyriyepTai. iroXXas yap eytn TCS Trept
ovo-iao-TTJe TOV OavaTOV. KOI /toi/os KCCT-
TOVTOV [jiapTvpias, e/c Te TWV Beioov ypa-
eX0a>V, fiCTO. TrXfj'601/s aVeXr/XuOei'. CCIITOS Kai e/c TJys fiX/ot nf/if/pov TOV dva-
<frcov,

yap v\v b i/oepos /co/c/coe TOV O-ITOV, b virep a-TavTos fj.apTvpias Kai eve/oyeias, TOV

j/xaiv ireo-ooV eis TTJV yrjv, Kai diroQavoov fiovov /j.v /cctTa/Sai/TOseis aor)v, TroXXo&Tov
<rapKi, os TTJ T)S Oeo-rtjTOS UVTOV cvvd- de dvafidvTOS.KaTfjXBe yap eis TOV Qdva-
fiei dvea-Tricre TOV arutfiaTiKov avTov vaov, Tov,Kai TToXXct rrw/maTa TWV KeKOifitifieviov
KaTa Tas ypa<pds, KapirotyopijcravTa TIJV dyiwv I'lyepQrj 8t' UVTOV. Cyril. Hierosol.
TOV irai/Tos dvQpunreiov yej/ous dvd Cateches. xiv.
VIII.]
01 LIMBUS PATRUM. 307

to make common unto all the saints that died before our
Saviour. " *13 A11 the saith " were
righteous men," he,
delivered, whom death had devoured. For it became the
proclaimed King to be the deliverer of those good pro-
claimers of him. Then did every one of the righteous
say, O death, where is thy victory? hell, where is thy O
sting ? for the Conqueror hath delivered us." Wherewith
we may compare that saying of St Chrysostom If it :
" 314

were a great matter that Lazarus, being four days dead,


should come forth, much more that all they who were
dead of old should appear together alive, which was a sign
of the future resurrection ; for many bodies of the saints
which slept arose" saith the text. And those other attr-
buted unto him in the Greek Euchologue " M5 The monu- :

ments, or graves, were opened, and they that were dead


from the beginning arose:" the Lord " ^descending into
hades, and shaking out the monuments thereof, freed all those
that were detained bound therein, and called them unto him-
self." And Armenians
these articles of the confession of the :

" W7
According to his body, which was dead, he descended
into the grave; but
according to his divinity, which did
live, he overcame hell in the mean time. The third day
he rose again, but withal raised up the souls (or persons)
of the faithful
together with him, and gave hope thereby
that our bodies also should rise
again like unto him at his
second coming."

3
'EXuTpouj/TO Trcti/res ol ctKaioi, ous 15
To fJLVi]fieia ^veto-^Qrja-av, icai ol air
KdTeTTiev 6 0a'i/aTos. yap rov Krjpw%-
e'5ei uitavos 0aj/oi/T6s aWo-Ttjo-aJ/.
Eucholog.
Qevra /3a<riXea riJav KaXwv Ktjpu/aoi/ yeve- fol. 166. b.
<r0at XuTpouTij'i/. Elra CKCO-TOS TOJJ/ 5i- 46
'O *caTa/3as eis rov aoijv, icai TO /ui/tj-
Kaitav eXeye, IIou <rou, Qdvare, TO i/T/coe ;
fjiela avTov e/criva'^as, Kai Trai/Tas TOIS ev
trov crov, aorj, TO Kevrpov ;

<$e<r/j.iovs
yap j^as 6 VLKOTTOIOS. Id. ibid.
14 <ras, /cat Trpos eavrov a'j/a/caXeora/nei/ov.
Ei yap TO
TCTapTalov Ibid.
Aa'apoi/ fieya, -rroXXai fiaXXoi/ TO -rrdWas
347 et in
a'Opotos TOUS TrdXai Kot/i?j0cj/Tas </>ai/^vai Ergo sepulchrum quoad cor-
^wi/Tas. o T7/5 eaofievT]? a'l/ao-Tao-ecos <rrj-
pus, quodmortuum erat, descendit ; juxta
vero divinitatem, quae vivebat, infernum
fj.elov r\v TroXXa yap crwfiaTa TWV *ce/coi-
interea devicit. Tertio die resurrexit :
dyitav rjyep0tj,
p.r]p.evtav f^rjcrl. Chrysost.
in Matth. xxvii. Horn. LXXXVIII. edit. sed et animas fidelium secum una susci-
Graec. vel LXXXIX. Latin, ubi tamen tavit; et dedit spem corporibus etiam a

Interpres vertit : Multo majus profecto morte resurgendi sibi similiter in se-
est multos jam olim mortuos in vitam cundo adventu. Confess. Armen. Artie.
reduxisse. 122124.
U2
308 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

Of those who arose with our Saviour from the grave,


or, anciently they used to speak, from hell, two there
as
be whom the Fathers nominate in particular, Adam and
Job; unto whom
348
Eusebius also thinketh fit that David
should be added. Of Job St Ambrose writeth in this manner:
"
Having heard what God had spoken in him, and having
349

understood by the Holy Ghost that the Son of God was


not only to come into the earth, but that he was also to
descend into hell, that he might raise up the dead, (which
was then done for a testimony of the present and an ex-

ample of the future), he turned himself unto the Lord and


said, O that thou wouldest keep me in hell, that thou
wouldest hide me
until thy wrath be past, and that thou
wouldest appoint me a time in which thou wouldest remem-
ber me. Job xiv. 13.*" In which words he affirmeth that
Job did prophesy " 350
that he should be raised up at the
11

passion of our Lord, as in the end of this book, saith


" he doth 11
he, testify. Meaning the apocryphal appendix
which is annexed to the end of the Greek edition of Job,
wherein we read thus: U351 lt is that he should
written,
11
riseagain with those whom the Lord was to raise. Which
although it be accounted to have proceeded from the Sep-
tuagint, yet the thing itself sheweth that it was added by
some that lived after the coming of our Saviour Christ.
" ^the whole
Touching Adam St Augustine affirmeth, that
11
Church almost did consent that Christ loosed him in hell.
" Which we are to 11
saith " that she did not
believe, he,

vainly believe whencesoever this tradition came, although no


express authority of the canonical Scriptures be produced

348 Catena tandus


Euseb. in Psalm, iii. 5, in |
foret, sicut in fine hujus libri tes-

Danielis Barbari et Aloysii Lippomani. tatur. Ibid.


349 Audito 3.51
UVTOV TrdXiv dva-
igitur quid locutus esset in oa
eo Deus, et cognito per Spiritum Sanctum <rrrjcrao-0ai, /ue6' tav o Kv/utos

quod Filius Dei non solum veniret in ter- vel dve<TTt}(r<-. Append, ad Job. Vide
etiam descensurus esset ad inferos,
ras, sed
Clement. Constitut. Apostolic, lib. v.

ut mortuos resuscitaret, (quod tune qui- cap. 6.


352
dem factum est ad testimonium praesen- i Et de illo quidem primo homine
tium et exemplum futurorum), conversus i

patre generis humani, quod eum ibidem


ad Dominum ait, Utinam in inferno con- solverit, Ecclesia fere tota consentit ; quod

servares, absconderes autem me donee de- eam non inaniter credidisse credendum
sinat ira tua, et statuas mihi tempus in est, undecunque hoc traditum sit, etiamsi

quo memoriam mei facias. Ambros. de canonicarum scripturarum hinc expressa


Interpellatione Job. lib. i.
cap. 8. non proferatur auctoritas. Aug. Epist.
350
Quod in passione Domini resusci-
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PATRUM. 309

for it." The only place which he could think of that seemed
to look this way, was that in the beginning of the tenth
chapter of the Book of Wisdom : She kept him who was
the first-formed Father of the world, when he was created
alone, and brought him out of his sin. Which would be
much more pertinent to the purpose, if that were added
which presently followeth in the ^
Latin text, I mean in
the old edition, for the new corrected ones have left it out :

Et eduxit ilium de limo terrce, " and brought him out of the
clay of the earth." Which
being placed after the bringing
of him out of his sin, may seem to have reference unto
some deliverance, like that of David's, Psalm XL. 2, He

brought me up out of the horrible pit, out of the miry

clay, rather than unto his first creation out of the dust of
the earth. So limus terrce may here answer well unto the
Arabians' which properly signifying moist
^J&\ al-tharay,
earth, or slime, or clay, is
by the Arabic interpreter of
Moses used to express the Hebrew ^INttf, which we trans-
late hell or grave. And as this place in the Book of Wisdom

may be thus applied unto the raising of Adam's body out


of the earth, wherein he lay buried, so may that other
tradition also, which was so current in the Church, be re-
ferred unto the selfsame thing, even to the bringing of Adam
out of the hell of the grave.
The very Liturgies of the Church do lead us unto this
interpretation of the tradition of the Church, beside the

testimony of the Fathers, which discover unto us the first

ground and foundation of this tradition. In the Liturgy of


the Church of Alexandria, ascribed to St Mark, our Saviour
Christ is thus called upon: " 355 O most great King, and
co-eternal to the Father, who by thy might didst spoil hell,
and tread down death, and bind the strong one, and raise

53
In Bibliis Complutensibus, et Regiis tateuchi interpres ab ipso Erpenio editus,
edit.Antuerp. ann. 1572, et magnis Latinis qui sheol vertit tharay, Gen. xxxvii. 35,
Bibliis edit. Venet. ann. 1588, ubi in hanc et XLIV. 29, 31 ; item Num. xvi. 30, 33,

particulam habentur notae Glossae inter- et Deut. xxxii. 22.


linealis et Nic. Lyrani. 355 Kai TU> iraTpl crvv-
*A.va]~ fjieyidTe,
354
Fr. Rapheleng. in Lexico Arabico, dvapye,b T>KpaTfi TOV a'otji; OTCuXeu-
<ru>

p. 53 et 55. in et Kin sepulehrum, in- <ras, Kai TOV QdvaTov TraTrj'o-as, Kai TOV

fernus, biNtr. Male, inquit Erpenius, in i<r%vpov 6e<T|ueu(ras, KOI TOV 'Aoa/u e/c TO-
observation, ad hunc locum (f)ov dvaffTticras TTJ Qeovpyittrj
aov Oi/j/a'/^ei
significat
:

terrainhumidam. Verum Raphelengium KOI <t>(oTi<rTiKfj a'iyXy TTJV o-^s dppi\Tov


ab hac reprehensione vindicat Arabs Pen- Marci Liturc.
310 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

Adam out of the grave by thy divine power and the bright
splendour of thine unspeakable Godhead."" In the Liturgy
of the Church of Constantinople, translated into Latin by
Leo Thuseus, the like speech is used of him: " 356 He did
voluntarily undergo the cross for us, by which he raised
up the first-formed man, and saved our souls from death."
And in the Octoechon Anastasimon and Pentecostarion of
the Grecians at this day, such sayings as these are very
usual: " 357 Thou didst undergo burial, and rise in glory,
and raise up Adam together with
thee, by thy almighty
" 338
hand." Rising out of thy tomb, thou didst raise up the
dead, and break the power of death, and raise up Adam."
" 259
Having slept in the flesh as a mortal man, O King and
Lord, the third day thou didst arise again, raising Adam from
" 36 Jesus the
corruption, and abolishing death." Deliverer,
who raised up Adam of his compassion, See." Therefore doth
Theodorus Prodromus begin his tetrastich upon our Saviour's
resurrection with

"'E-yjOeo TTpcoTOTrXacTTe TraAaryem, eypeo rvjuifiov.

Rise up, thou first-formed old man, rise up from thy grave.

St Ambrose pointeth to the ground of the tradition,


when he intimateth that Christ suffered in " 361 Golgotha,
where Adam's sepulchre was, that by his cross he might
raise him that was dead; that where in Adam the death
of men lay, there in Christ might be the resurrection
all

of Which he received, as he did many other things


all."

besides, from Origen, who writeth thus of the matter :

ses
There came unto me gome sucn tradition as this, that
356
Crucem sponte pro nobis subiit, per 'Add/j. eyetpas e/c ^)0opds, /cai Kot

quam resuscitavit protoplastum, et a morte QdvaTov. Ibid. p. 262. b.


animas nostras salvavit. Chrysost. Liturg. seo b XuTptOTrjs, 6 eyetpas TOV
'Ifj(j-0jJs

Latin. 'Add/j. Trj euaTrXayx^ta avTov. Ibid,


357
Tae/nji/ KctTa8ea^iej/o, icai di/atrrae p. 278. b.
ev <5oy, <rui/ai/a<mj<ras 361
TOV 'Aod/j. X el P <i
Quam suscepitin Golgotha Christus,
7ravToSvvdfj.M . Nov. Antholog. Graec. ubi Adas sepulchrum, ut ilium mortuum
edit. Romae ann. 1598, p. 235. b. in sua cruce resuscitaret. Ubi ergo in
358
'E^avao-Tas TOU fj.vrjfJ.aTos TOUS Adam mors omnium, ibi in Christo om-
T60i/ea>Tas jjyeipas, /ecu TOU 6a.va.TOV TO nium resurrectio.Ambros. lib. v. Epist.
K-pa-ros (TvveTpL\!sas, Kal TOV 'ASdfj. dve- XIX.
wTtjo-as. Ibid. fin. p. 239.
sea
Venit ad me traditio qusedam talis,
50
Sap/d i>7n/io'eras cos 0v)Tos, 6 jSao-i- quod corpus Adae primi hominis ibi se-
Xeus /ecu Kt'YJtos, -rpnj'/xepos cai/eV-n/s pultum est ubi crucifixus est Christus, ut
vin. ] OF LIMBUS PATRUM. 311

the body of Adam the first man was buried there where
Christ was crucified ; that as in Adam all do die, so in
Christ all might be made alive ; that in the place which is
called theplace of Calvary, that is, the place of the head,

the head of mankind might find resurrection with all the


rest of the people by the resurrection of our Lord and
Saviour, who
suffered there and rose again. For it was
unfit that when many which were born of him did receive
forgiveness of their sins, and obtain the benefit of resurrec-
tion, he who was the father of all men should not much
more obtain the like grace. 11 Athanasius, or whoever else
was author of the discourse upon the passion of our Lord
which beareth his name, referreth this tradition of Adam's
burial-place unto the report of the ^doctors of the Hebrews,
(from whom, belike, he thought that Origen had received it),
and addeth withal, that it was very fit that where it was
said to Adam, Earth thou art, and to earth thou shalt
return, our Saviour finding him there, should say unto him
again, Arise, thou that sleepest, and stand up from the
364
dead, and Christ shall give thee light" Epiphanius goeth
a little further, and findeth out a mystery in the water and
blood that fell from the cross upon the relics of our first

father lying buried under it, applying thereunto both that


in the Gospel, of the arising of many of the saints,

(Matt, xxvii. 52), and that other place in St Paul, Arise,


thou that sleepest, &c. (Ephes. v. 14). Which strange specu-
lation, with what great applause it was received by the
multitude at the first
delivery of it, and for how little
reason, he that lists may read in the fourth book of St
Jerome's Commentaries upon the 27th of St Matthew, and
in his third upon the 5th to the Ephesians. For upon this
first
point, of Christ's descent into the hell of the grave,

sicut in Adam omnes moriuntur, sic in jusmodi gratiam consequeretur. Origen.


Christo omnes vivificentur; ut in loco Tractat. xxxv. in Matt. cap. xxvii.
363
illo qui dicitur Calvariae locus, id est, "Qdev ovde aXXa^ov Trdayet, oitdf

locus capitis, caput humani generis resur- eis aXXov TOTTOV o-rau/oouTat, jj els TOV
rectionem inveniat cum populo universe Kpaviov TOTTOV, ov 'Eppaioov ol cifidaKaXoi

per resurrectionem Domini Salvatoris, qui (j>aari TOV 'Aoo/u. clvai Ta'^ov. Athanas.
ibi passus est et resurrexit. Inconveniens in Passion, et Crucem Domini.
enim 364
erat, ut cum multi ex eo nati remis- Epiphan. contra Tatian. Hares.
sionem acciperent peccatorum, et benefi- XL vi. Vide etiam Paulae et Eustochii
cium resurrectionis consequerentur. non Kpist. ad Marcellam. Tomo i. Oper.
magis ipse pater omnium hominum hu- Hieronymi, Epist. xvu.
312 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

and the bringing of Adam and his children with him from
thence, we have dwelt too long already.
In the second place, therefore, we are now to consider
that as hades and inferi, which we call hell, are applied
by the interpreters of the holy Scripture to denote the place
of bodies separated from their souls, so with foreign authors,
(in whose language, as being that wherewith the common

people was acquainted, the Church also did use to speak,)


the same terms do signify ordinarily the common lodge of
souls separated from their bodies,
whether the particular
place them be conceived to be a
assigned unto each of
habitation of bliss or of misery. For as when the grave is
said to be the common receptacle of dead bodies, it is not
meant thereby that all dead carcases are heaped together
promiscuously in one certain pit ; so when the heathen write,
that all the souls of the dead go to hades, their meaning
is not that they are all shut up together in one and the
selfsame room; but in general only they understand thereby
the translation of them into the other world, the extreme

parts whereof the poets place as far asunder as we do heaven


and hell. And this opinion of theirs St Ambrose doth well
365 " had not
like of, wishing that they mingled other super-
fluous and unprofitable" conceits therewith: " 366
That souls

departed from their bodies did go to 0^/79, that is, to a place

which ;iswhich place," saith he,


not seen " we in Latin
call So likewise saith St Chrysostom " ^The
in/emus? :

Grecians and barbarians, and poets and philosophers, and


all mankind, do herein consent with us, although not all

alike, and say that there be certain seats of judgment in


hades; so manifest and so confessed a thing is this." And
again: ^The Grecians were foolish in many things, yet

365
Atque utinam non superflua his et Tiva OVTW Qavepov
dt/cao-Tfjpta ev aSov.
inutilia miscuissent. Ambros. de Bono Kai TO Trpdyfid CCTTI.
<a/Jio\o'yr)fj.vov

Mortis, cap. 10. Chrysost. in 2 Cor. Homil. ix.


366 368
Satis fuerat dixisse illis, quod li- Too-ai/Ta eXtj'/otjo-av "EXXtji/ee, a'XX'
beratae animae de corporibus di&r\v pe- O/iWS TTjOOS TOV ^oy/ittTOS TOVTOV OVK
T>jl/

terent,id est, locum qui non videtur. avTccrTricrav a'Xtj'Oeiai/. oXX' et /cat

Quern locum Latine infernum dicimus. a'/coXoi>6?j'<rets, ofitas eSuiKav


riva
Ibid. Taina fiiov, /cat evdvvas, Kai i

367 'AXA.cc Kai /coXao-et?, /cat


/cat "EXX?jj/es Kai ftdpftapoi, ev adov, /cat -rt/ias,
Kai TTOit]Tal Kai </>tXo(ro<oi, Kai irdv ,
/cat /c/ottrets' KO.V 'lovSaiovs epw-

dv8p(i>Tr<uv yej/os (rv^iavovcriv ev TOVTOLS ,


KOLV at/36Tt/cous, Kav ovTiva dvQpoa-
Tj/uti/,
ei Kai /xt; ofiotws, /cat (f>a<riv elvai ai<r\vvQT](TeTai TOV ^oy/xaros TtjV
VIII.]
OF MM BUS PATRUM. 313

did they not resist the truth of this doctrine. If, there-

fore, thou wilt follow them, they have granted that there is
a certain life after this, and accounts, and seats of judg-
ment in hades, and punishments, and honours, and sentences,
and judgments. And if thou shalt ask the Jews or heretics,
or any man, he will reverence the truth of this doctrine ;
and although they differ in other things, yet in this do they
all agree, and
say that there are accounts to be made there
11
of the things that be done here. Only among the Jews
the " Sadducees, which *say that there is no resurrection,

neither angel nor spirit, rdv KU& qov Ti/ucopias ical TI/KCIS

avaipovai, take away the punishments and honours that are


370
in hades" as is noted by Josephus. For which wicked
doctrine they were condemned by the other sects of the Jews,
who generally acknowledged that there was JTlDttOn D^V
olam hanneshamoth, (for 371 so do they in their language until
this day call that which Josephus in Greek termeth hades),
that is to say, the world of spirits, into which they held
that the souls were translated presently after death, and
there received their several judgments.
The same
thing doth Theodoret suppose to be signified
by phrase of being gathered to one's people, which
that
is so usual in the word of God. For it being said of Jacob,
before he was buried, that he gave up the ghost, and was
gathered unto his people, Gen. xLix. 33, Theodoret observeth,
that " Moses 372 by these words did closely intimate the hope
of the resurrection. For if men,' 1 saith he, " had been
wholly extinguished, and did not pass unto another life, he
would not have said, He ivas gathered to his people" So
likewise, where it is distinctly noted of Abraham, Gen. xxv.
that he gave up the ghost and died, then, that
8, 9? first,
he was gathered to his people, and lastly, that his sons buried
373 3>4
him, Cardinal Cajetan and the Jesuit Lorinus interpret

371
i el Kal ev aXAots 8ia(f>epou- EliasLevitainTischi,verb.Dbiy Kin
ev TovTta Trai/Tes 372 Aia TOVTWV T<av
TCLI, ccAA' o'UfJL<pti)vova'i > \6ywv rivi%a.TO Ttjv
Kai \eyov<riv elvai T>V evrauQa yeyevri- TT/S a'l/ao-Tao-etDs. Ei yap irav-
fieviavevQvva? e^el. Chrysost. de FatO et SietyQetpovTO, Kal /ij ets ere/ooy
Providentia, Orat. iv. Tom. vi. p. 874, OVK av cnre, II/jo<reTe'0Tj
/ucTe/3ati/oi/ fiiov,
edit. Savil. TT/OOS TOV \abv avTov. Theodoret. in Gen.
369
Acts xxiii. 8. Quaest. cix.
370 373
Josephus de Bello Judaico, lib. ii. Cajetan. in Gen. xxv.
374 Lorin, in Act. xiii. 16.
cap. 12, circa finem.
314 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [cHAP.

the de compositi totius dissolutione, " of the dissolution


first

of the parts of the whole man" consisting of


body and soul ;
the second of the state of the soul separated from the body ;
and the third of the disposing of the body parted from the
soul. Thus the Scripture's speech of being gathered to our
people should be answerable in meaning to the phrase used
" "
by the heathen of descending into hell," or going to
375
hades;" which, as Synesius noteth out of Homer, was
by them opposed Tt-j aKpifiea-Tarri aircoXeia, to a most abso-
lute extinguishment as well of the soul as of the body.
And forasmuch as by that term " the immortality of the
soul" was commonly signified, therefore doth Plato, in his
PhaBdo, disputing of that argument, make this the state
of his question: u 376 Whether the souls of men deceased be
"
in hades or no ? and Olympiodorus, the Alexandrian deacon,
affirmeth of Job, that he delivered " 377 the most excellent
doctrine of the immortality of the soul," by teaching, " that
souls are not extinguished together with their bodies, but
do remain in hades;" and some others also of our ecclesias-
tical writers do from thence fetch a difference betwixt death

and hades. " s78 You shall find," saith Theophylact, " that
there is some difference betwixt hades and death; namely,
that hades containeth the souls, but death the bodies. For
the souls are immortal." The same we read in 379 Nicetas
Serronius's Exposition of Gregory Nazianzen's second paschal
Oration. Andreas Caesariensis doth thus express the differ-
ence " 38
Death is the separation of the soul and the body ;
:

but hades is a place to us invisible, or unseen and unknown,


which receiveth our souls when they depart from hence."
The ordinary gloss, following St Jerome upon the 13th of

376
Synes. Epist. iv. Nam immortales sunt animae. Theophy-
376 Eire dpa ev qdov al \]/v%ai elarlv lact. in 1 Cor. xv.
Te\ewTr\<rdvT(ov TOIV dvQpwTTtav, elre Kai 379 Hoc differunt mors et infemus, quod
ot Plat. Pha?don. p. 381, edit. Graeco-
; ilia corpora, hie animas detineat. Nicet.
Latin. ann. 1590. in Gregor. Nazianz. Orat. XLII.
377 KaXXurrov
Hepi dQavaarias x/'i/X'?
5
380
Gaj/aTos ftey ^wpitrp.
etcnjyerrcu fJLaQt]p.a. Si tav SiSdvKei, fj.rj

eraJ/xaTOS* a'5tjs Se TOTTO? rlfj.l


avvaTToXXvaQai TO!S ariofJia.o'i
Tas \|fy)as,
rlyovv d(f>avt? Kai ayi/wcrTos,
dXX' ev aSov TvyyjdveLv. Olympiodor.
Protheor. in Job. /ce<. 5.
378 /xei/05.
Andr. Cassariens. in Apoca-
Comperies aliquod esse inferni et
lyps. Commentar. cap. 64. edit. Grace.
mortis discrimen ; videlicet, quod ani-
mas infernus contineat, mors vero corpora.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS FATBDM. 315

" 381
Death is that whereby the soul is sepa-
Hosea, thus:
rated from the body ; hell is that place wherein the souls
are included either for comfort or for pain.
The " asa soul goeth to hades" saith Nicetas Choniates
" but the
in the proem of body returneth again
his history,
into those things of which it was composed/' Caius, or who-
ever else was the author of that ancient fragment which we

formerly signified to have been falsely fathered upon Josephus,


" ^in hades the souls both of the
holdeth, that righteous
and unrighteous are contained ;" " ^but that the righteous
are led to the right hand by the angels that await them

there, and brought unto a lightsome region, wherein the


righteous men that have been from the beginning do dwell,
and this we call Abraham's bosom," saith he ; whereas " the
wicked are drawn toward the left hand by the punishing
angels, not going willingly, but drawn as prisoners by vio-
lence." Where you may observe how he frameth his descrip-
tion of hades according to that model wherewith the poets
had before possessed men's minds:
385
Dextera, quae ditis magni sub moenia tendit.
Hac iter Elysium nobis: at laeva malorum
Exercet poenas, et ad impia Tartara mittit.

" The right hand path goeth underneath the walls of Pluto deep ;

That way we must, if paths to paradise we think to keep :

The left hand leads to pain, and men to Tartarus doth send."

For " 386


as we do allot unto good men a resting-place in
paradise, so the Greeks do assign unto their heroes the

381
Mors est qua separatur a corpore. Tcti eis ywpiov tyto-Teivov, ev w ol air*

Infernus est lacus ubi recluduntur ani- "/X^ S ^iKaioi. -TroXireyoi/Tat, &C. TOUTCO
mae, vel ad refrigerium, vel ad pcenam. dk ovofjia KLK\t]<TKOfiev KoXirov 'AftpadfJ.. ot

Strabus in Gloss. Ordinar. ex Hieronym. 8e adiKot et9 djOio-Tepa e\Kovrai VTTO dy-
lib. iii. in Ose. cap. xiii. yeX<av /coXao-Twi/, OVKCTI e/couo-tws TTO-
32
Kat TOU fJLfv es aSov /3e/3tjfcei/ TJ pcvo/ULevoi, ctXXa /neTa /3tas a>s Sear/uuoi

^UX J '>
^pos 5e TCC, e a>v tj/o/xo<r0r;, TO <ru>- eXKOftevoi. Ibid.
sss
fia eTraXivdpofjLiicre. Nicet. init. His- Virgil. yEneid. vi. conferend. cum
toriae. Platonis Narratione, lib. x. de Republ.
83
Tlepl 8e adov, ev w (rvve^ovrai \^/v- patillo post citanda.
\al f>iKai<av Te Kai doi/ctoi/, dvayKoiov
LTrelv. Caius, in Fragmento de Causa sivc dyaOois dvopdviv d-Tro/cXjj/oou/Liej/ oia-
Essentia Universi de quo supra, p. 205.
: OUTUI TOIS iipiacriv dTrove/iiovoriv
34
'AXX' et fj.ev oiKaioi, eis ^e^ict 0o>T- "EXXtjj/ev Tas fjiaKaptav i/jjo-ovs Kai TO
yooyovfjievoi, Kat viro TWV e0eo-ro>TfOJ/ jj'Xuo-ioi/ ire&iov. Jo. Tzetz. in Hesiod.
Kara TOTTOV dyyeXiav v/ivovftevoi^ ayov- 'Epy.
316 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

Fortunate Islands and the Elysian fields," saith Tzetzes.


And as the Scripture borroweth the term of 387 Tartarus
from the heathen, so is it thought by B8 Tertullian and
389
Gregory Nazianzen, that the heathen took the ground
of their " Elysian fields" from the Scriptures paradise.
1

To heap up many testimonies out of heathen authors to


prove that in their understanding all souls went to hades-)
and received there either punishment or reward according
to the life that they led in this world, would be but a need-
less work, seeing none that hath read any thing in their

writings can be ignorant thereof. If any man desire to


inform himself herein, he may repair to Plutarch's conso-
latory Discourse written to Apollinus, where he shall find
390
the testimonies Pindarus and many others alleged,
of

7T6jOt
TWV eva-efiecov ev ci<W, touching the state of the godly
in hades. Their common opinion is sufficiently expressed
in that sentence of Diphilus, the old comical poet " 391 In :

hades we resolve there are two paths; the one whereof is


the way of
the righteous, the other of the wicked." Which
392
is commended for true
Theodoret indeed;
by philosophy
as the like, in the stoical philosophy of Zeno, is by 393 Lac-
tantius pronounced to be consonant to the doctrine of the
prophets and the verity of our religion. But as in this
general they agreed together both among themselves and
with the truth, so touching the particular situation of this
hades, and the special places whereunto these two sorts of
souls were disposed, and the state of things there, a number
of ridiculous fictions and fond conceits are to be found among
them, wherein they dissented as much from one another
as they did from the truth itself. So we see, for example,
394
that the best souls are placed by some of them in the
company of their gods in heaven, by others in the galaxias

887
Sei/oals o<ou Ta/OTa/owo-as. 2 Pet. and. Stromat. lib. v. indeque apud Euseb.
ii. 4. Praep. Evangelic, lib. xiii. p. 400, edit.
aes Tertullian. Apologetic, cap. 47- Graec. et auctorem libri de Monarchia
389
Greg. Nazianz. Orat. xx. in laud. apud Justinum Martyr, qui Philemoni
Basilii. hoc attribuit.
390 392 Theodoret. in Therapeutic, ad Graec.
Pindar. Olymp. Od. u. ubi etiam
Scholiastes ejus meminit TWV kv aSov lib. viii. pp. 88, 89.
393 Lactant. Institut. lib. vii. cap. 7-
CiKctiwv.
391 394 Vide Tertullian. de Anima, cap. 54,
Kcu yap *a0' a'cSrjv Svo Tpt/Sous vo-
fii^ofjiev' Miai/ oiKaicov, (repay &' dcre- 55, et Macrob. in Somn. Scipionis, lib. i.

fiwv civ bS6v. Diphil. apud Clem. Alex- cap. 912.


VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PATRUM. 317

or milky circle, by others about the moon, by others in the


lower air, by others beyond the ocean, and by others under
the earth :

395
lIai;Ta9 o,

yet one hades, notwithstanding, was commonly thought to


have received them all.
Plato relateth this as a sentence delivered by them who
were the first ordainers of the Grecian mysteries:
" ^Who-
soever goeth to hades not initiated and not cleansed shall
lie in the mire; but he that cometh thither purged and
initiated shall dwell with the gods.""
So Zoroaster, the
great Father of the Magi in the East, is said to have used
this entrance into his discourse touching the things of the
other " 397 These wrote
Zoroaster, the son of
worlgl: things
Armenius, by race a Pamphylian, having been dead in the
war, which I learned of the gods, being in hades" as
Clemens Alexandrinus relateth in the fifth book of his Stro-
mata; where he also noteth, that this Zoroaster is that Er,
the son of Armenius, a Pamphylian, of whom Plato writeth
in the tenth book of his Commonwealth, that being slain
in the war he revived the twelfth day after, and was sent
back as a messenger to report unto men here the things
which he had heard and seen in the other world. One
398
part of whose relation was this That he saw certain gulfs :

beneath in the earth and above in the heaven opposite one


to the other; and that the just were commanded by the

judges that sate betwixt those gulfs to go to the right


hand up toward heaven, but the wicked to the left hand
and downward. Which testimonies 399 Eusebius bringeth in,
among many others, to shew the consent that is betwixt
Plato and the Hebrews in matters that concern the state
of the world to come.

396
Antholog. lib. i.
cap. 37. and lib. ,
TO yevos ITdfi<vXos, ev TroA.e-
iii. cap. 6. Ets KOIVOV adyv fita TeXevrrj'cras, oaa kv a'otj yevofievos
/3/OOTOl. eda'rjv irapd Oeaiz/. Zoroaster apud Clem.
)6
"Os av a'^turjTos /cat areA-co-ros eis I Alexandr. Strornat. lib. v. indeque apud
a'6ou d<J>iKi)Tcu, ev fiopfiopw /ceio-erar 6 I Euseb. Prsepar. Evang. lib. xiii. p. 395.
398 de Repub. p. 518.
<5e
KeKadapnevos -re /cat TeTeXe<r/ue'i>os, |
Plato lib. X.
excise d(p>iK6/j.euo<i, fj.eTa Qewv oiKfjcrei. |
3 " Euseb. Praspar. Evang. lib. xi. p.
Plat Phaedon. p. 380. f. and 380. a. !
330. Vide et Origenem contra Celsum,
397 Ta5e
cruj/eypaxl/e Ztopoa'o-Tptjs o lib. ii. p. 72, edit. Grace.
318 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAl'.

Next to Zoroaster cometh Pythagoras, whose golden


verses are concluded with this distich :

*Hi/ cT
aTroXe'ufsas crwfjia, eg alOep eXevOepov
aOdvctTos Geo?, ap./3poTos 9 OVK ert

" When thou shalt leave the body and come unto a free

heaven, thou shalt be an immortal god, -incorruptible, and


not subject to mortality any more." So Epicharmus, the
scholar of Pythagoras :
" 401
If thou be godly in mind, thou
shalt suffer no evil when thou
art dead; thy spirit shall
remain above in heaven." And Pindarus " 402 The souls of :

the ungodly fly under the heaven (or under the earth) in
cruel torments, under the unavoidable yokes of evils; but
the souls of the godly, dwelling in heaven, do praise that

great blessed One with songs and hymns."

'AQavaTois aXXouytv 6/u.ecrTioi,

403 "
as Empedocles speaketh, conjoined in the same dwelling
with other immortal wights." Whereunto we may add these
Greek verses of Moschion, in Stobaeus :

rjorj yj7 Ka\u(f>0rjvai veicpovs,


KCt(TTOV 64? TO <7ft)yU.'
CL(plKTO 9
'

aTTeXOeiv, Trvev/ma /mev wpos aiOepa,


To S' eis yijv.

" Suffer now the dead to be covered with and whence


earth,

every thing came into the body, thither to return again ;

the spirit to heaven, the body to the earth." And compare


them with the like Latin of 404 Lucretius:

Cedit enim retro, de terra quod fuit ante,


In terras; et quod missum est ex setheris oris,

Id rursum coeli rellatum templa receptant.

400
Pythagor. Aur. Carm. cum Com- ots VTTO ^euyXats d(f>vKTOis KaKtav' fvtre-

mentar. Hieroclis, p. 310. /3wi/ 5e eTTOvpdvioi. vdovari (al. ev ovpavols


}1
Eu<re/3/s via Tre(/>u/ca>V ou -rraOots i/aioi/crat) yu.o\7raTs /xa/cctyoa yueyav deidovar*
y' ovSev KCIKOV ILaTdavoaV dvw TO Trvevfia ev Pindar, ibid, et apud Theo-
vp.voi<s.

8ia/j.evei KO.T'
ovpavov. Epicharm. apucl doret. in Therapeutic, ad Graecos, lib. viii.
403
Clement. Alexandr. Stromat. lib. iv. Empedoc. apud Clement. Alexandr.
02
"fyvxai d' darefiiuv inrovpavioi (al. vir' Stromat. lib. v.
ouv Tot) yaiq. 404
TTtiiTuivrai. ev aXyecri rfiovi- Lucret. de Rer. Natur. lib. ii.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PATRUM. 319

" For that which was before of the earth


goeth back again
into the earth; and what was sent down from the heavenly

regions, that do the temples of heaven again receive trans-


mitted thither."
Cicero, in his Tusculan Questions, allegeth the testimony
405 " Romulus
of Ennius, approving the common fame that
did lead his life in heaven with the gods." And in the sixth
book of his Commonwealth he bringeth in Scipio teaching,
that "
406
unto all them which preserve, assist, and enlarge
their country, there is a certain place appointed in heaven,
where they shall live blessed world without end." " 407 Such
"
a life," is the
saith way to heaven, and into the
he,
company who, having lived, and are now loosed
of those
from their body, do inhabit that place which thou seest,"
pointing to the galaxias, or milky circle, whereof we read
thus also in 40S Manilius :

An fortes animsc, dignataque nomina ccelo,


Corporibus resoluta suis, terrseque remissa;
Hue migrant ex orbe, suumque habitantia coelum,
^Ethereos vivunt annos, mundoque fruuntur?

With Damascius, the philosopher of Damascus, this circle


" 409 is the
way of the souls that go to the hades in heaven."

Against whom Johannes Philoponus doth reason thus, from


the etymology of the word: u 410 If they pass
through the
galaxias, or milky circle, then this should be that <j&ns,
or hades, that is in heaven ; and how can that be hades
which is so lightsome ?" To which they that maintained
the other opinion would peradventure oppose that other
common derivation of the word from the Doric aSetv, which
411
signifieth to please, or to delight; or that which Plato

405
Romulus in ccelo cum diis agit vos, ut a Graiis accepistis, orbem lacteum
aevum, ut famae assentiens dixit Ennius. nuncupatis. Ibid.
408
Cic. Tuscul. Qusest. lib. i. Manil. Astronom. lib. i.
406 409
Omnibus qui patriam conservarint, 'H 6<5os ecrri TO yccXcc rwv dicnropev-
adjuverint, auxerint, certum esse in coelo o/neiftov TOV kv ovpavw adrjv. Damasc.
ac definitum locum, ubi beati sevo sempi- 410 Ei ouv TOV
yaXafciav dicnropeuovTai,
terno fruantur. Id. in Somnio Scipionis. OUTOS dv eitj o ev ovpavta cti^rjs* KCLI Trois
407 Ea vita via est in coelum, et in hunc ai^T/s o OUTOJ <a>Teii>os ; Philopon. in
coetum eorum, qui jam vixerunt, et cor- Meteor, i. fol. 104. b.
411
pore laxati ilium incolunt locum quern Kat TO ye OVO/JLO. o 'A^tjs, to 'E/o/xo-
vides, (erat autem is splendidissimo can- yei/es, TroXXou del dirb TOV deioov-s eirta-
dore inter flammas elucens circulus,) quern d\\d TroXu /noXXoj/ aVo TOV
320 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

doth deliver in the name of Socrates, CLTTO TOV clSevai, from


seeing or knowing all good things ; for there did Socrates
look to find such things, as appeareth by that speech which
Plato, in his Dialogue of the Soul, maketh him to use the
same day that he was to depart out of this life: " 412 The
soul, being an invisible thing, goeth hence into such another
noble, pure, and invisible place ; to hades^ in truth, unto
the good and wise God; whither, if God will, my soul must
413
presently go." Which place is alleged by Eusebius to
" 414 in the
prove, that things which concern the immortality
of the soul Plato doth differ in opinion nothing from Moses."
The which Socrates there telleth of the " 415 pure
tale also
"
land," seated above in the pure heaven," though it have
a number of toys added to it, as tales use to have, yet
the foundation thereof both Eusebius and Origen do judge
to have been taken from the speeches of the Prophets touching
the Land of Promise and the heavenly Canaan ; and for the
rest Origen referreth us to Plato^s interpreters, affirming that
" 416
who handle his writings more gravely do expound
they
this tale of his by way of allegory."
Such another tale doth the same philosopher relate in the
" 417
dialogue which he intituleth Gorgias, shewing that among
men he that leadeth his life righteously and holily shall,
when he is dead, go unto the Fortunate Islands, and dwell
in all happiness, free from evils; but he that leadeth it

unrighteouslyand impiously shall go unto the prison of


punishment and just revenge, which they call Tartarus."
Which Theodoret bringeth in to prove, that " 418 Plato did

irdvTa TCC /caXa eloevai, diro TOVTOV VTTO fivdov ol cre/ULVOTepov Ta TOV
TOV vofjLo6eTOv"ASr]? e/cXij0jj. Socrat. apud <f>L\o<r6<f>ov
Platon. in Cratylo. p. 265. Origen. lib. vii. contraCelsum, p. 362.
417 Tu>v
412
'H 5e xw 7?
"/ a T0
> detfies, T& ets dvQpcoTrtav TOV p.ev ^t/catcos TOV
TOIOVTOV TOTTOV eTepov ol\6fivov, yev- fttov die\66vTa Kal bcr'nas, eirei&dv Te\ev-
vdiov /cat KaOapdv /cat deiBrj, els adov <os Tr\ar\, eis fiaKapcav vrjo-ous CLTTIOVTCL, ot/cetv
rapd TOV dyaQov /cat (f)povtfJLOv ev ird(rri evSaifiovia 6/CTO5 /ca/caij/* TOV de
Qeov' ol, dv 6eos eQeXri, auTt/ca /cal TTJ d^t/ctos /cat dSecos els TO T^S Tto-ews TC
efifi \l/vxfj LTeov. Id. apud eund. in ,
o 6fj TdpTapov
Phasdon. p. 385. g. KaXova-Lv, lev at. Plato in Gorg. p. 312. c.
413 18
Euseb.Prsp. Evangel, lib. xi. p. 325. Oinrws a/c/oi/3ais eTrlffTevev o IlXa-
414 Ta ev adov KpiTqpia.
'Ev TOIS irepl \^ix^s ddavaaias TCOV elvcti t

ovdev Mwcrews 6 nXaVajj/ diearTr)K TTJ ydp 'EjS^oatots ev AiyinrTco, TWV


Ibid. p. 323. TLKWV irdvTws \oyitav eirr^KOvtre. Theo-
415
Plat. Pha;don. p. 398, 399. doret. Therapeutic, ad Graec. lib. xi.
416
Tov fJLev ovv Trapd HXaTtovi a'XXi]-- J
p. 155.
VIII.]
OF LIMRUS PAT1UJM.

exactly believe that there were judgments to pass upon men


in hades. For being conversant with the Hebrews," saith
u
in Egypt, he heard without doubt the oracles of the
he,
" 41<l
Prophets;" and taking some things from thence, and
mingling other things therewith out of the fables of the
Greeks, made up his discourses of these things." Among
which mixtures, that which he hath of the Fortunate Islands
is reckoned by 42 Theodore t for one; whereof you may read
in
m Hesiod, 422 Pindarus, 423 Diodorus Siculus, 421 Plutarch,
and 425 Josephus also, who, treating of the divers sects that
were among the Jews, sheweth that the Essenes borrowed
good men's souls in a certain
this opinion of the placing of

pleasant habitation beyond the ocean from the Grecians.


But the Pharisees, as he noteth 426 elsewhere, held that the
place wherein both rewards were given to the good, and
" under the earth ;"
punishments to the wicked, was which,
427
as Origen doth declare to have been the common opinion
of the Jews, so doth Lucian shew that it was the more
vulgar opinion among the Grecians. For among them " 428 the
common multitude, whom wise men," saith he, " call simple
people, being persuaded of these things by Homer and Hesiod,
and such other fabulous authors, and receiving their poems
for a law, took HADES to be a certain deep place under the
earth." The first original of which conceit is by Cicero
derived from hence: " 429
The bodies falling into the ground
and being covered with earth, whence they are said to be
interred, men thought that the rest of the life of the dead
419
Td fiev eKeWev \ap<av, TO te CK Kal truyuTrXtj/ocJorei TOV Koyov
Ttav 'EXXiji/i/ctoi/ dva/iu|fas fivQwv, TOVS auTOus T^S i^i/x^s dQavaortav, Kal TU
TT]V

ifepl TovTtav eTrotrjo-aTo Xoyovs. Ibid, VTTO yrjv SiKaitoTiipia, Kal Tas Tt/txds Ttav

p. 166. /caXais /Se/Siw/coTwy. Orig. contra Cels.


420
Ibid. p. 157. lib. v. p. 267.
421 488
Hesiod. in "Epy. 'O fiev Srj TroXi/5 o/utXos, oi)s t

422
Pindar. Olymp. Od. u. et Graec. ol <ro<f)ol Ka\ov<riv,'Op.i'ip(t)
Scholiast, ibid. Kal TOIS aXXois /uuOoTrotoTs irepl TOVTWV
423
Diodor. Biblioth. lib. iii. Kal voftov 6e/J.evoi TTJJ/
TreiOo/JLevoi, TroirjfftJ/
424
Plutarch, in Vita Sertorii. airrtav, TOTTOV Tivd viro TT) yfj /3a0uj/
425
Josephus de Bello Judaico, lib. ii.
"AiSriv virei\n<pa<rt. Lucian. de Luctu.
429 In terrain enim cadentibus corpori-
cap. 12, p. 730, edit. Graec.
2G
'AQdva-rov TC ia-'xyv Tats \l/v%al<: bus, hisque humo tectis, ex quo dictum
auTots elvai, Kal UTTO ^Ooi/os ^ t ~ est humari, sub terra censebant reliquam
cat Ti/ids, ols dpCTT/s 17 fca/ctas vitam agi mortuorum ; quam eorum opi-
rts ei/ Tto (3iw yeyove. Id. An- nionem magni errores consecuti sunt, quos
tiquit. lib. xviii. cap. 2, p. 548. auxerunt poetac. Cicer. Tuscul. Quaest.
'

T[t]\tKov (5c TO a")(cSov tifiu ycvcarci lib. i.

X
322 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

was led under the earth upon which opinion of theirs,"


:

saith he, " great errors did ensue, which were increased
by
the poets." Others do imagine that the poets herein had
some relation to the " 43 spherical" situation of the world;
for the better understanding whereof these particulars follow-

ing would be considered by them that have some knowledge


in this kind of learning.
First. The material spheres in ancient time were not
made moveable in their sockets as they are now, that they
431
might be set to any elevation of the pole, but were fixed
to the elevation of 36 degrees, which was the height of the
Rhodian climate. Secondly. The horizon which divided this
sphere through the middle, and separated the visible part
of the world from the invisible, was commonly esteemed the
utmost bound of the earth, so that whatsoever was under
that horizon was accounted to be under the earth. For
neither the common people, nor yet some of the learned
432 433
doctors of the
Church, (as Lactantius, St Augustine,
434
Procopius, and others), could be induced to believe that
which our daily navigations find now to be most certain,
that there should be another southern hemisphere of the
earth inhabited by any antipodes that did walk with their
feet just opposite unto ours. Thirdly. The great ocean was
supposed to be the thing in nature which was answerable
to this horizon in the sphere. Therefore it is observed by
435 436 437
Strabo that Homer, and by Theon, Achilles Tatius,
and others, that Aratus and the rest of the poets do put
the ocean for the horizon; and thereupon, where the astro-

430 Heraclid. Pontic. de


Allegor. Ho- /cat eis TO VTTO yrjv v}p.icr(fraipiov, /cat ota
mer. Servius in Virgil. TEneid. lib. vi. TOVTO bp'iX^dov \eyofj.fvos.
431 436
IIjOos yap TOVTO TO ev /cXt/xa /cat at 'Qiceavov de TOV bpi^ovTa b "ApaTos

KptKUJTal <r(f)dipai KaTaaKeva^ovTai /cat \eyei iroifj-rt/cws. Theon in Arat. p. 6.


at a-Tepeai. Geminus in Phaenomen. 'Q/ceai/os yap 6 bpK,(av. Ibid. p. 59, edit.
cap. 13. Paris.
432 437
Lactant. Instit. lib. iii. cap. 23. AeycTat Se bpi^tov, OLOTI 6/ot^et TO
433
Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. xvi. cap. 9. VTTO yrjv /cat vTrep yijv T^/jLiar^aipiov. irepi
434
Procop. in Genes, cap. i. yap TIJV crtpalpav efcwQev tov, TO^IV %x ei
435
Strabo, Geograph. lib. i. ad quern TOV ooKeavov, os e^iaQev TrejOt/cXu^et TI}V
doctissimus Casaubonus hanc ex Gram- yrjv, d(p' ov dvaT\\eLv /cat eis ov Svveiv
maticis Oceani definitionem producit : doKel Ta aa-Tpa. oQev /cat "ApaTOs (aneavov
'G/ceaios e<rri /cu/cXos Si^d^aiv evvotjfJLaTi- avTov /caXet. Achill. Tat. in Arat. p. 93,
/cuis Tt]v ovpaviav o^al/aav KCLTO. tcroTtjTa edit. Florent.ubi etiam alius Scholiastes,
TOV TIJ-S yijs eiriTredou, /cat TCfjivcav oi^n p. 115, de Horizonte similiter notat: Ot
ca-r' eirivoiav auToi;, etc TC TO virkp yrjv, Sc TrotJjTai tuKfavov avTov /caXouo'i.
VIII.]
)1 1.1M1UJS I'ATHU.M.

nomers say that the sun or the stars at their setting go


under the horizon, the common phrase of the poets is, that
they do tingere se ocea-no, dive themselves into the ocean.
For as they took the earth to be but half a globe, and
not a whole one, so they imagined that demi-globe to be
as it were a great mountain or island, seated in, and en-
vironed round about with, the ocean. Thus the author of the
book de Mundo affirmeth that " 438 the whole world is one
island, compassed about with the Atlantic sea;" and Diony-
sius Alexandrinus, in the beginning of his geography,

Mi/^cro/ueu 'Q/ceavoto /3a9vppoov ei;


yap GKeivtu

Tlava xOcov, are i^/cros aTre/jOtro?, <rTe0ai/curai*

wherein he followed Eratosthenes, as his expositor Eustathius


there noteth, who compareth also with this that place of
tf

Orpheus, eV Tip Trepi Ato? ical


Hpas y

KVK\OV a/ca/uarov KaXXippoov 'Q/ceai;o?o,

^O? yaiai' ^ivr\(n Trepij

whereunto answereth that of 439 Euphorion, or, as


44
Achilles
Tatius citeth it, of Neoptolemus Parianus, in his

Q/ceavo?, TW Travci
TrepippvTos ei/oeoeTcu

And this opinion of theirs the Fathers of the Church


did the more readily entertain, because they thought it had
441
ground from Psalm xxiv. 2, and cxxxvi. 6, and such other
testimonies of holy Scripture. That the whole earth," " 442

saith Procopius Gazaeus, " doth subsist in the waters, and


that there is no part of it which is situated under us void
and cleared of waters, I suppose it be known unto all.
For so doth the Scripture teach Who stretcheth out the :

18
"OTL Kai 442
j trvfjiTraara (ot/cou/u.ei/tj) fiia Quod autem universa terra in aquis
vrjtros fffTiv, viro TT/S 'A.T\avriKrj^ KaXov- subsistat, nee ulla sit pars ejus, quae infra
fj-evn? 0aXa'<r<njs -Tre/otppeo/uevrj. Aristot. nos sita est, aquis vacua et denudata, om-
de Mundo, cap. 3. nibus notum reor. Nam sic docet scrip-
439
Citat. ab Arati Scholiaste, edit, ture, Qui expandit terram super aquas :
cum Hipparcho Florent. ann. 1567, etiterum, Quia ipse super maria fundavit
p. 115. earn, et superflumina preeparavit eam^&c.
440
Achill. Tat. in Arateis, ibid. p. 93. Nee decet ut credamus aliquam terram
441
Vide Augustin. Quzest. cxxxii. in infra nos coli nostro orbi oppositam. Pro-
Genesin, et in Enarrat. Psalm, cxxxv. cop, in Genes, cap. i.
x 2
324 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAF.

earth upon the waters ; and again, He hath founded it

upon the seas, and prepared it upon the floods. Neither


is it fit we should believe that any earth under, us is in-
habited, opposite unto our part of the world." The same
443
collection is made by St Hilary, 441 Chrysostom, 445 Caesa-
rius, and others. Fourthly. It was thought by the ancient
heathen that the ocean, supplying the place of the horizon,
did " 446 separate the visible world from the kingdom of
hades ; and therefore, that such as went to hades" or the
world invisible to " must first the ocean whence
us, pass ;"
447
that of Horace:

Nos manet oceanus circumvagus: arva, beata


Petamus arva, divites et insulas :

and that the pole antarctic was seen by them there, as the
arctic or north pole is by us here, according to that of

Virgil in his Georgics


:

Hie vertex nobis semper sublimis: at ilium


Sub pedibus Styx atra videt, manesque profundi.

Fifthly. As they held that hades was for situation placed


from the centre of the earth downward, so betwixt the
beginning and the lowest part thereof they imagined as
great a space to be interjected as there is betwixt heaven
and earth. So saith Apollodorus of Tartarus, the dungeon
of torment: "
448
This is a dark place in hades, having as
great a distance from the earth as the earth from the
heaven." And Hesiod, in his Theogonia, agreeably to that
which before we heard from Homer :

Tocraoi/ evepO' VTTO yrjs OGOV ovpavos eoV CLTTO


'TT / 9 > \ <-s > rri / 440 * '
Lcrov yap T CLTTO yqs e? lapTapov rjepoevra.

443 veterum testimonia hue facientia diligen-


Hilar. in Psal. ii.

444 Homil. ter congessit.


Chrysost. in Genes, cap. ii.

447 Horat. Epodon. lib. Od. xvi.


XII.
445 Caesar. 448 <5e OUTOS
Dialog, i. TOTTOS cjoe/3a)^t;s ea-Tiv ev
446 5e oinelv Xeye<r6ai, TO<TOVTOV UTTO
Hap' utKeavov afiov, yr]<s e^iov &id<rrri/j.a,
TOV SlOpi^OVTa TOV VOt]TOV TOTTOV dlTO ovov dTr ovpavov yrj. Apollodor. Biblio-
Tjje TOW aSov /3a<rtXeta* ov KOL TrpwTOV thec. lib. i.

TrepaiovarQai TOUS ets aSov Tropevofievovs,


19
To ^e /Sa'0os TO iro\\6v TOV }e/oos
Proclus, Diadoch. in Hesiod. "Epy. ab eWat. Lucian. TTC/OI daTpo-
Hugone Sanfordo citatus, qui complura
VIII.] OF LIMBUS PATRUM. 325

" It is as far beneath the earth as heaven is from the


earth thus equal is the distance from
; for the earth unto
dark Tartarus." Whereunto that of Virgil may be added,
in the sixth of the

Turn Tartarus ipse


Bis patet in praeceps tantum, tenditque sub umbras,
Quantus ad cethereum coeli suspectus Olympum.
Then Tartarus itself, that sink-hole steep,
Two times as low descends, two times as headlong downright deep,
As heaven upright is high :

that, see how high the heaven is over us when we look


upward the downright distance from thence to Tar-
to it,

tarus should be twice as deep again. For so we must


conceive the poet's meaning to be, if we will make him to
accord with the rest of his fellows.
These observations, I doubt not, will be censured by
many to savour of a needless and fruitless curiosity ; but
the intelligent reader, for all that, will easily discern how
hereby he may be led to understand in what sense the
45
ancient, both heathen and Christian, writers did hold hades
to be under the earth, and upon what ground. For they
did not mean thereby (as the schoolmen generally do, and
as 4M Tertullian sometime seemeth to imagine,) that it was
contained within the bowels of the earth, but that it lay
under the whole bulk thereof, and occupied that whole space
which we now find to be taken up with the earth, air, and
firmament of the southern hemisphere. " 452 The inhabitants
of which infernal region and vast depth" are thereupon
affirmed by St Hilary to be non intra terram, sed infra
" not within the And
terram, earth, but beneath the earth."
this proceeded from no other ground but the vulgar opinion,
that the southern hemisphere of the earth was not inhabited

by living men, as our northern is: insomuch that some


of the heathen atheists, finding the contrary to be true by
the discourse of right reason, endeavoured to persuade them-

50
Ita apud Pindarum, in Olymp. Od. et in ipsis visceribus ejus abstrusa profun-
1 1.
illud, Kara yas, exponit scholiastes, ditas. Tertul. de Anima, cap. 55.
452Esse autem hujus infernae regionis
I'TTO yfjf, TOVT(TTt KO.Q' (iSoU,
51
Nobis infer! non nuda cavositas nee vastaeque abyssi incolas plures beati Jo-
subdivalis all qua mundi sentina credun- hannis Apocalypsi docemur, &c. Hilar.
tur, sed in fossa terrtc et in alto vastitas. in Psal. xcix.
326 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

selves from thence that there was no such place as hades


at all.
" 453 Lucretius for the 11
saith
greater part, Servius,
" and others that the of hell cannot as
fully teach, kingdoms
much as have a being. For what place can we say they
have, when under the earth our antipodes are said to be?
and that they should be in the midst of the earth, neither
will the solidity permit nor the centre of the earth. Which
earth, if it be in the middle of the world, the profundity
thereof cannot be so great that it may have those inferos
within it, in which is Tartarus, whereof we read,

Bis patet in prseceps tantum, tenditque sub umbras,


Quantus ad sethereum coeli suspectus Olympum."

But Christian men, being better instructed out of the word


of God, were taught to answer otherwise. " 454 If thou dost
ask me," saith St Chrysostom, " of the situation and place
of Gehenna, I will answer and say, that it is seated some-
where out of this world," and that " it is not to be enquired
in what place it is situated, but by what means rather it
may be avoided."
In the dialogue betwixt Gregory Nyssen and that ad-
mirable woman Macrina, St BasiPs sister, touching the soul
and the resurrection, this point is stood upon at large, the

question being first proposed by Gregory in this manner :

" 455 Where is that name of hades so much


spoken of, which
is so much treated of in our common conversation, so much
in the writings both and our own, into
of the heathen
which all men think that the souls are translated from hence
as into a certain receptacle ? For you will not say that the
Whereunto Macrina thus replies
1 ''

elements are this hades.' :

453
Lucretius ex majore parte et alii hunc aliquo esse positam. Non ergo erit
integre decent, inferorum regna ne esse quo fuerit haec loco sita, quin magis quo
quidem posse. Nam locum ipsorum quern pacto evitari possit, quaerendum. Chry-
sost. de Praemiis Sanctor. Tom. HI. Oper.
possumus dicere, cum sub terris dicantur
esse antipodes? in media vero terra eos Latin.
455
nee soliditas patitur, nee centrum IIou e/celvo TO Tro\vQpv\\riTov TOV
esse,
medio mundi est,
in aSov TTO\V fjikv cv Trj (rvvr]Qeia TOV
terrae ; quae terra si ovofia.)
tanta ejus esse profunditas non potest, ut (3iov, TroXu Se V TCUS crvyy patyals TCUS
in medio sui habeat inferos, in quibus est Te e^toQev Kal Tats rj^iexe'|0cus Trepitpepo-
o o'iovrai KaQatrep oo-
Tartarus, de quo legitur, Bis patet in fjievov, ets Trcc'i/res

prseceps tantum, &c. Servius in ^Eneid. ~^eiov cvQevSe TCCS \ffv~)(as /u.eTavia"ra.a'6a.i j

VI. ov yap av TO. crTOL^ela TOV ao^v Xeyots.


4 Tom.
'
Si de situ et loco quaesieris, respon- Gregor. Nyssen. in Macriniis, 11.

dicamque extra terrarum orbem Oper. p. 641.


VIII.] OF L1MBUS PATRUM. 327

" 456
It appeareth that thou didst not give much heed to
my
speech; for when I spake of the translation of the soul
from that which is seen unto that which is invisible, I
thought I had left nothing behind to be enquired of hades.
Neither doth that name, wherein souls are said to be, seem
to me to signify any other thing, either in profane writers
or in the holy removing unto that
Scripture, save only a
which and unseen."" Thereupon it being further
is invisible
" 457 How then do some think that a certain sub-
demanded,
terraneal place should be so called, and that the souls do

lodge therein ?" for answer thereunto it is said, that there


is no manner of difference betwixt the lower
hemisphere of
the earth and that wherein we live; that as long as the

principal doctrine of the immortality of the soul is yielded


unto, no controversy should be moved touching the place
thereof; that local proper to bodies, and the
position is

soul, being incorporeal, no need to be detained in


hath
certain places. Then the place objected from Philip, ii. 10,
of those under the earth that should bow at the name of
JESUS, being largely scanned, this in the end is laid down
for the conclusion: " 458 Thesethings being thus, no man
can constrain us by the name of things under the earth
to understand any subterraneal place forasmuch as the air ;

doth so equally compass the earth round about, that there


is no part thereof found naked from the covering of the
air." Both these opinions are thus propounded by 459 Theo-
Hugo Etherianus after him: "What is
460
phylact, and by

56
Af/Xos el p.r\ Xtai/ oi/o/iaTt TOV vTroyelov evvoelv X">/ooj/, e-rrt'-

\6yta. Tr\v yap e/c TOW bpco/uievov TT/OOS TO trtjs TOW depots travTa^oQev Tr/oi/cexw/ueVow
a'ei(5es p-eTaaTaaiv TT;S \|/ux*7 9 elirovtra, T?7 y^j &>s jujj^ej/ awTT/s /nepos yvfjivov T^S
ovoev cpfjLtjv diroXeXoiTreVat els TO irepi 7re/)t/3oX?;s TOW de/oos KaTaXa/Jiftdvea-Qai.
TOV adov t)Towyuei/oj>. ovde a'XXo Tt /not Ibid. p. 644.
6o/cet irapd Te TWV e^uoQev /cat irapd TT/S
>9
Tt oe o aorjs ;
ot /xev O.VTOV (pa<rt
Oetas yparpT/^ TO oi/oyua TOWTO otacrrj/iai- Xwpov vTroyetov oKOTeivov oi 8e TTJJ/ aVo
veiv, ev <Jo TCCS if/vyd? yii/eo-0at Xeyovai, TOW e/x</)ai/ows ets TO dtyavcv /cat a'eiotv
irXtji/ eis TO aei^es /cat d<ave<i
(/orf. /ueTot/crjo-ji/). Ibid. p. 641,

(paivcTat Sid TU>V oineitov evepyeiiov' /ue-


457 Kat TOV
-7TWS VTTOyQoVlOV Tao-Taaa 0*6 TOW o-co'/uaTOS det^tjs ylveTac
olovrai Tii/es ouTia \eyecrQai, /cat kv au TOWTO yowy efyacrav elvai TOV a.8r\v. Theo-
Ta\- \//wxs Travoo^fueiv ;
&c. j
phylact. in Luc. cap. xvi.
Ibid. p. 460 Infernum
1142. autem hi quidem putant
' R
ToWTOJJ/ OWT6 regionem sub terra caliginis et tenebra-
TM TWV i<a.TayQov'nai> rum, &c. Alii vero infernum ex appari-
328 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP,

hades or hell? Some say that it is a dark place under


the earth. Others say that it is the translation of the soul
from that which is visible unto that which is unseen and
invisible. For while the soul is in the
body, it is seen by
the proper operations thereof; but being translated out of
the body it is invisible, and this did they say was hades"
So where the author of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy
defineth death to be a separation of the united parts, and
the bringing of them eis TO TJIUV cxpaves, unto that which
is invisible to us, his scholiast Maximus noteth thereupon,
" 461
that this invisible thing some do affirm to be hades,
that is to say, an unseen and invisible departure of the
soul unto places not to be seen by the sense of man."
Hitherto also may be referred the place cited 462 before out
of Origen in his fourth book Trepl dpywv, which by St
" 463
Jerome is thus delivered: They who die in this world

by the separation of the flesh and the soul, according to


the difference of their works obtain divers places in hell."
Where by hades, inferi, or hell, he meaneth indefinitely
the other world, in which how the souls of the godly were
" 464 The soul
disposed he thus declareth in another place:
leaveth the darkness of this world, and the blindness of this

bodily nature, and is translated unto another world, which


is either the bosom of Abraham, as it is shewed in Lazarus,
or paradise, as in the thief that believed upon the cross;
or yet if God know that there be any other places or other
mansions, by which the soul that believeth in God passing
and coming unto that river which maketh glad the city of
God, may receive within it the lot of the inheritance pro-

tione ad disparitionem animae nominave- differentiam diversa apud inferos obtinent


runt. Quamdiu anima est in corpore, per loca. Origen. de Principiis, lib. iv. apud
proprias videtur actiones ; sed ubi a cor- Hieronym. Epist. LIX. ad Avitum.
464
pore discessum est, omnibus modis in- Relinquit anima mundi hujus tene-

cognita nobis existit. Hugo Etherian. bras ac naturae corporeae caecitatem, et


de Animar. Regress, ab Inferis, cap. transfertur ad illud seculum, quod vel
11. sinus Abrahae, ut in Lazaro, vel paradi-
61
TOVTO TO ct</>ai/es Tn/es (f)rj<rav
elvai sus, ut in latrone qui de cruce credidit,
TOV aStjv, TovTeffTi TOV deioij Kol dfpavrj indicatur; vel etiam si qua novit Deus
yevofjievov Trj-3 i^u^s xaopurjJLOv ets TO- esse alia loca vel alias mansiones, per
TTOUS dopaTovs TO!? at<r0jjToIs. Maxim, quae transiens anima Deo credens, et per-
in Dionys. Ecclesiast. Hierarch. veniens usque ad flumen illud quod laeti-
cap. 2.
462
Supra p. 201. ficat civitatem Dei, intra ipsum sortem
i3
In isto mundo
qui moriuntur se- promissae patribus haereditatis accipiat.
parationc carnis et animae, juxta operum Origen. in Numer. xxxL Homil. xxvi.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS 1'ATHUM. 329

miscd unto the Fathers." For touching the determinate state


of the faithful souls departed this life, the ancient doctors,
as we have shewed, were not so thoroughly resolved.
At this time all the question betwixt us and the
Romanists is, whether the faithful be received into their

everlasting tabernacles presently upon their removal out of


the body, or after they have been first " purified to the

point," as Allen speaketh, in the furnace of purgatory :

but in the time of the Fathers, as St Augustine noteth, the


" 4(i5
great question was, whether the receiving" of them into
those everlasting tabernacles were " performed presently after
this life, or in the end of the world, at the resurrection
of the dead and the last retribution of judgment." And so
concerning hell the question was as great among them,
whether all, good and bad, went thither or no? whereof
the same St Augustine is a witness also, who upon that
speech of Jacob, Gen. xxxvii. 35, / will go down to my
writeth thus: u
466
son into
mourning It useth to be
hell,
a great question, in what manner hell should be under-
stood; whether evil men only, or good men also, when they
are dead, do use to go down thither. And if evil men
only do, how doth he say that he would go down unto his
son mourning ? for he did not believe that he was in the
pains of hell: or be these the words of a troubled and
grieving man, amplifying his evils from hence?" And upon
that other speech of his, Gen. xLii. 38, You shall bring
down mine " 467 Whether
age with sorrow unto hell:
old
therefore unto hell, because with sorrow ? or, although sor-
row were away, speaketh he these things as if he were to
go down into hell by dying ? For of hell there is a great
question and what the Scripture delivereth thereof, in all
;

465
utrum statim post istam
Ilia receptio verba sunt, mala sua etiam hinc exagge-
vitam an in resurrectione mortuorum
fiat, rantis ? Id. Quaestion. cxxvi. in Genes,
atque ultima retributione judicii, non mi- et Eucher. in Genes, lib. iii.
cap. 18.
nima quaestio est. Augustin. Question.
467 Utrum ideo ad infemum, quia cum
Evangel, lib. ii. cap. 38. tristitia ? An etiam si abesset tristitia,
460
Solet esse magna quaestio, quomodo tanquam ad infernum moriendo descen-
intelligaturinfernus;utrum illucmali tan- surus haec loquitur ? De inferno enim
turn, an etiam boni mortui descendere so- magna quaestio est ; et quid inde scrip-
leant. Si ergo tantum mali, quomodo iste tura sentiat, locis omnibus ubi forte hoc
ad filium suum se dicit lugentem descen- commemoratum fuerit observandum est.
dere? Non enim in pocnis inform eum Augustin. Quaestion. CXLII. in Genesim,
essc crcdidit. An pcrturbati ct dolentis |
et Eucher. in Genes, lib. iii.
cap. 27-
330 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

the places where it hath occasion to make mention of it,


is to be observed." Hitherto St Augustine, who had re-
"
ference to this great question" when he said, as hath been
before alleged, " Of hell neither have I had any experience
168

as yet, nor
you ; and peradventure there shall be another
way, and by hell it shall For these things are
not be.
uncertain." Neither is theregreater question among the
doctors of the Church concerning the hell of the Fathers
of the Old Testament, than there is of the hell of the
faithful now in the time of the New; neither are there
greater differences betwixt them touching the hell into which
our Saviour went, (whether it were under the earth or above,
whether a darksome place or a lightsome, whether a prison
or a paradise), than there are of the mansions wherein the
souls of the blessed do now continue.
words of king Hezekiah,
St Jerome, interpreting those
Isaiah xxxviii. / shall
the gates of hell, saith
10, go to
that this is meant " 46<J either of the common law of nature,
or else of those gates, from which that he was delivered
the Psalmist singeth, Thou that liftest me up from the
gates of death) that I may shew forth all thy praises in
the gates of the daughter of Sion. Psalm ix. 13, 14." Now,
as some of the Fathers do expound our Saviour's going to
hell of his descending into Gehenna, so others expound it
of his going to hell according to " the common law of
nature;" the common law of nature, I say, which extendeth
itself
indifferently unto all the dead, whether they belong
to the state of the New Testament or of the Old. For
as Christ's soulwas in all points made like unto ours, sin
it was
only excepted, while joined with his body here in the
land of the living; so, when he had humbled himself unto
the death, it became him in all things to be made like
unto his brethren even in that state of dissolution.
4TO
And

68
Supra p. 199. TWV dvQpunrivcov tyvyoav, KCU TIJS <ra/o/cos
Vel communi lege naturae, vel illas
i{?
e/CTOs yevofj-evri 77 KOL i/<e(rrTj/ce' \oyiKi]

portas de quibus quod liberatus sit, Psal- dpa /cat TCUS ifrvxctis TWV dvdpwTrcov O/ULO-
mista decantat, Qui exaltas me de portis ov<ri0s, uxrirep /ecu 1} adp o^tooutrtos Ttj

mortis, ut annunciem omnes laudationes TWV dvQpejj-rrwv o-apKi -rvyydvei e/c T^S
tuas in portis filiae Sion. Hieron. lib. xi. Ma/oias Trpoe\Qov(ra. Eustathius Antio-
in Esai. cap. xxxviii. chen. in Psal. xv. citatus a Theodoreto
AXXet /xtjj/ } TOV 'Itjcrov e/cccTt'/otof in ATjoe-TTTw, Dialog. I.
TTflpav eV^e' ycyove yap KUL cf TW -^wpiia
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PAT1UTM. 331

so indeed the soul of " JESUS had experience of both.


For it was in the place of human souls, and being out of
the flesh did live and subsist. It was a reasonable soul,

therefore, and of the same substance with the souls of men,


even as his flesh is of the same substance with the flesh
of men, proceeding from Mary," saith Eustathius, the patri-
arch of Antioch, in his exposition of that text of the Psalm
Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. Where by
or hell, you see, he understandeth ^wpiov TWV

^/vyu>v,
the place of human souls, which is the Hebrews'
TYIDttOTT CD^V or world of spirits; and by the disposing of
Christ's soul the manner of other souls, con-
there after
cludeth it same nature with other men's souls.
to be of the
So St Hilary, in his exposition of the 138th Psalm " 471 This :

is the law of human


" that the bodies
necessity," saith he,
being buried the souls should go to hell. Which descent
the Lord did not refuse, for the accomplishment of a true
man." And a little after he repeateth it, that de super-
ad " he descended from the
nis inferos mortis lege descendit,
supernal to the infernal parts by the law of death." And
" 472
To
upon the 53d Psalm more fully : fulfil the nature
of man he subjected himself to death, that is, to a de-

parture as it were of the soul andbody and pierced into ;

the infernal seats, which was a thing that seemed to be


due unto men."
So Leo, in one of his sermons upon our Lord's passion :

" 473 He did


undergo the laws of hell by dying, but did
dissolve them by rising again, and so did cut oft* the per-

petuity of death, that of eternal he might make it temporal."


So Irenaeus, having said that our Lord " 4 4 conversed three
"

" 475 observed


days where the dead were," addeth that therein he

471 Humanac ista lex necessitatis est, ut mortis incidit, ut earn de aeterna faceret
j

consepultis corporibus ad inferos anima? temporalem. Leo de Passion. Serm.


j

descendant. Quam descensionem Domi- [


vm.
nus, ad consummationem verihominis,non 474 Nunc autem tribus diebus conversa-
recusavit. Hilar. in Psal. cxxxviii. tus est ubi erant mortui. Irenaeus, lib. v.
472 Ad
explendam quidem hominis na- cap. ult.
turam etiam mori se, id est, discessioni se 475 Dominus legem mortuorum servavit,
tanquam animas corporisque subjecit; et j
ut primogenitus a mortuis ; et com-
fieret

ad infernas sedes, id quod homini debitum moratus usque ad tertium diem in inferio-
J

videtur esse, penetravit. Id. in Psal. i.iii. ribus terrac, post deinde surgens in carne,
473 ut etiam figuras clavorum ostemleret dis-
Leges inferni moriendo subiit, sed
resurgendo dissolvit ;
et ita perpetuitatcm cipulis, sic asccndit ad Patrcm. Ibid.
332 ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

the law of the dead, that he might be made the first-begotten


from the dead, staying until the third day in the lower
parts of the earth, and afterward rising in his flesh." Then
he draweth from thence this general conclusion: " 476 Seeing
our Lord went in the midst of the shadow of death, where
the souls of the dead were, then afterward rose again cor-

porally, and after his resurrection was assumed, it is manifest


that the souls of his disciples also, for whose sake the Lord

wrought these things, shall go to an invisible place appointed


unto them by God, and there shall abide until the resur-
rection, waiting for the resurrection ; and afterwards receiving
their bodies, and rising again perfectly, that is to say, cor-

porally, even as our Lord did rise again, they shall so come
unto the presence of God. For there is no disciple above
his Master, but every one shall be perfect if he be as his
11
Master. The like collection doth Tertullian make in his
book of the Soul: " 477
If Christ being God, because he was
also man dying according to the Scriptures, and being buried

according to the same, did here also satisfy the law by


performing the course of a human death in hell, neither
did ascend into the higher parts of the heavens before he
descended into the lower parts of the earth, that he might
there make the patriarchs and prophets partakers of him-
self, thou hast both to believe that there is a region of
hell under the earth, and to push them with the elbow who
proudly enough do not think the souls of the faithful to
be fit for hell ; servants above their Lord, and disciples above
their Master, scorning, perhaps, to take the comfort of ex-
pecting the resurrection in Abraham's bosom."
And in the
same book, speaking of the soul: u 478 What is that," saith
" which is translated unto the infernal or hell,
he, parts,

476 Cum enim Dominus in medio um- venient ad conspectum Dei. Nemo enim
brae mortis abierit, ubi animae mortuorum est discipulus super Magistrum, perfectus
erant, post deinde corporaliter resurrexit, autem omnis erit sicut Magister ejus.
et post resurrectionem assumptus est, ma- Ibid.
477 Tertullian. de vide
nifestum est, quia et discipulorum ejus, Anima, cap. 55 ;

propter quos et haec operatus est Dominus, supra p. 256.


478
animae abibunt in invisibilem locum, de- Quid est illud quod ad inferna
finitum eis a Deo, et ibi usque ad resur- transfertur post divortium corporis ? quod
rectionem commorabuntur, sustinentes re- detinetur illic, quod in diem judicii re-
surrectionem ; post recipientes corpora, et servatur, ad quod et Christus moriendo

perfecte resurgentes, hoc est, corporaliter, descendit, puto ad animus patriarcharum.


quemadmodum et Dominus resurrexit, sic Ibid. cap. 7.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PATKUM. 333

after the separation of the body? which is detained there,


which is reserved unto the day of judgment, unto which
Christ by dying did descend, to the souls of the patriarchs,
I think." Where he maketh the hell unto which our Saviour
did descend to be the common receptacle not of the souls
of the patriarchs alone, but also of the souls that are now
still
separated from their bodies, as being the place quo
479
universa humanitas trahitur, (as he speaketh else where
in that book), " unto which all mankind is drawn."
So Novatianus after him affirmeth, that the very places
u 480 wn j cn He under the earth be not void of
distinguished
and ordered powers. For that is the place," saith he,
" whither the souls both of the
godly and ungodly are led,
receiving the fore-judgments of their future doom."" Lac-
tantius saith that our Saviour 481 rose again ab inferis,
" from hell " but so he saith
; also, that the dead saints
shall be 482 raised up ab inferis at the time of the resurrec-
tion. St of Alexandria
Cyril that the Jews u 483 killed
saith,
Christ, and cast him into the deep and dark dungeon of
" 484 hades
death, that is, into hades ;" adding afterward, that

may rightly be esteemed to be the house and mansion of


such as are deprived of life." Nicephorus Gregoras, in his
Funeral Oration upon Theodoras Metochites, putteth in
this for one strain of his lamentation: " 485
Who hath
brought down heavenly that the bottom of man unto
"
hades ? And Andrew, Archbishop of Crete, touching the
descent both of Christ and all Christians after him even unto
the dark and comfortless hades, writeth in this manner:
" 486 If
he, who was the Lord and Master of all, and the

14
Ibid. cap. 58. Toil/ yap 0)77? effTepiifievtav voolT dv
480
Quae infra terrain
jacent, neque eiKOTtos b a'5t}s ol/cos TC /cat ei/5tatT7))ua.

ipsa sunt digestis et ordinatis potestati- Ibid. p. 155.


35
bus vacua. Locus enim est quo piorum Tts TOV ovpdvtov avQpwirov es adov
animae impiorumque ducuntur3 futuri ju- Tri/0/iej/as KaTtji/eyjce ; Niceph. Gregor.
dicii praejudicia sentientes. Novatian. Histor. Roman, lib. x.
de Trinitat. cap. 486 El ovv Kal auros
1. ei'Xero, KU/OIOS <av
481
Lactant. Institut. lib. iv. cap. 19. TOV iravTos, Kal 3e<r7roTrjs, /cai <als TWI/
482
Id. lib. vii. cap. 24. vide et cap. 22. ev (TKOTet, KaiQjoii Ttav a.TrdvT(ov, QavaTov
53
'A-TTGKTovaa-i yap, Kal wcrirep ets
yevtraa-Qai, /cat TI]V ets aSov KaTaftatrtv
Ttj/a \OLKKOV KaQJJKav ol SeiXaioi, TO (3a&v eTTi&ea<rQai, tosav /card irdvTa t/yuif bpoi-
Kal (TKOTeivov TOV QavuTov fidpaQpov, TOV- wQrj, xw/ois a/na/oTtas, KCII TOV TOV
dfieidr)
TCO-TI TOV qdr)v. Cyril. Glaphyr. in Gen. adov ^iapov, TOV d(pfyyij Xcyw /cat <r/coTet-
lib. vi. p. 154.
VOV, VVKTOTptliuCpOV 5te\J\W06, Tt ^6J/OJ/,
334 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

light of them that are in darkness, and the life of all men,
would taste death and undergo the descent into hell, that
he might be made like unto us in all
things, sin excepted,
and for three days went through the sad, obscure, and
dark region of hell; what strange thing is it that we, who
are sinners and dead in trespasses, according to the
great
Apostle, who are subject to generation and corruption,
should meet with death, and go with our soul into the dark
chambers of hell, where we cannot see light nor behold the
life of mortal men ? For are we above our Master, or
better than the saints who underwent these things of ours
after the like manner that we must do?"
Juvencus intimateth that our Saviour, giving up the
ghost, sent his soul unto heaven, in those verses of his:
487
Tune clamor Domini magno conamine missus
^Ethereisanimam comitem commiscuit auris.

Eusebius Emesenus collecteth so much from the last words


which our Lord uttered at the same time Father, into thy :

hands I commend my spirit. To rrvevima avco, saith 488 he, KOI


TO crwjULa GTT\ aravpov virep yfjLwv, " His Spirit was above,
and his body remained upon the cross for us." St Chry-
sostom, or whoever else was the author of that sixth
Paschal Homily, making three distinct parts of the whole
man out of the sentence of the Apostle, 1 Thess. v. 23, con-
verteth thus his speech unto our Saviour " 489 Let the :

heavens have
thy spirit, paradise thy soul, (for to day,
saith he, will I be with thee in paradise), and the earth thy
"
blood," or thy body" rather ; for that answereth to the
third member of his division. In the Greek exposition of
the Canticles, collected out of Eusebius, Philo Carpathius,
and others, that sentence in the beginning of the sixth

487 Juvenc. Histor. Evangel, lib. iv.


d(JLapTta\ovs auras, KO.L vexpovs
Trapa.TTTw/jLaa'i, /caTcc TOV fJLeyav 488
Euseb. Emesen. a Theodoreto cita-
Xov, TOUS VTTO yeveaiv Kai(t>&opdv,QaudT(p tus in A7ra6. Dialog, in.
fjLev Trpooro/JLL\7Ja-ai, Kai aSov -ret cr/coTetva
9
'JZ%eT(jncrdv crov TO irvevfia ol ov-
<5ta /ue<nj cbreXBeiy /cccTayaJyia, ov
\l/v^rj^
pavol, o Se 7rapddei<ros TI]V
OVK earn <eyyos i&elv, ovSe opav %tai}v ^rv)0|ir,

f (o-jj/ie/oov yap, fprjarlv, tvOfMU fJLTa <rou


irpo\e\eK rai
f
jSyOOTWi/, cos ; /J.i] ydp VTTtp
ev Tea Trapaoeiata,} TO 5e ai/na ^an troi-
TOV decnroTijv tj/xeis, ij TWV dyicov Kpe'iT-
TOUS, 01 TOV vTre\ii\vQacri fjia potius?) r) yfi. MepepiiTTai o ct/ut-
bfJLOiov nfi.Iv
&c. Chrysost. Tom. v. edit. Savil.
Tpoirov TU r}/j.eTepa ; Andre. Hierosolym. /oi|s,

Serin in Vitam Humanam etin Defunctos.


.
p. 349.
VIII.]
OF LIM11US PATIIUM. 335

chapter, My beloved is gone down into his garden, is


of Christ's
49 " to the souls of the saints
interpreted going
into hades r which in the Latin collections, that bear the
name of Philo Carpathius, is thus more largely expressed :

" 491
By this descending of the bridegroom we may under-
stand the descending of our Lord Jesus Christ into hell, .

as I suppose; that which followeth proveth this, when


for
he saith, to the beds of spices. For those ancient holy men
are not unfitly signified by the beds of spices ; such as were
Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Job, David, Samuel,
Elisaeus, Daniel, and very many others before the law and
in the law ; who
of them, like unto beds of spices, gave
all

a most sweet smell of the odours and fruits of holy right-


eousness. For then as a triumpher did he enter PARADISE,
when he pierced into hell. God himself is present with us
for a witness in this matter, when he answered most gra-

ciously to the thief upon the cross, commending himself


unto him most religiously, To day shalt thou be with me
1 ''

in paradise.' Lastly, touching this paradise, the various


opinions of the ancients are thus laid down by Olympiodorus,
to seek no farther " 492 It is a thing fit to enquire in what
:

place under the sun are the godly placed. Certain it is


that in paradise; forasmuch as our Saviour said unto the

90
KttT6/3tJ CIS K.TJTOV aVTOV' 7T/0<)s TCtS eris in paradise. Philo Carpath. in Can-
ev adov Ttav dyiwv if/v^ds. Euseb. in tic, vi.

Cantic. p. 68. 492


TitjTijarai Se ir/oocnjKei, vrov vird TOV
491
Per descensum sponsi, quern patrue-
t/Xtoi/ Tvyydvovcriv ol eu<re/3eTs. fvdrjKov
lem appellat, Domini nostri Jesu Christi
OTI ev TO) -rra/ooetVw, ACCCTCC TOV elpt]KOTa
descensum ad inferos possumus intelli-
"SooTtjpa T<5 Xria-TT), SijfjLepov /xe-r' e/zou
gere, ut arbitror; nam et haec sequentia Kai del eiccvai OTI
e<nj ev T(a 7rapaSeL<ria.
probant, cum
ad aromatum phialas
dixit,
t] /j.ev iGTOpia TOV irapdceiarov eiri yfj<i
sive areolas. Prisci enim illi sanctissimi eli/ai SiSdffKei. TII/CS 6e e$?j<raj/ OTI Kai o
viri per phialas aromatum non inepte
Tra/oa^etaos ev TU> atiy Tvyyavei' 816 </>f)<n,
significantur ; quales fuere Noah, Abra- Kat 6 TrXoutrios eI5e TOV A.d%apov, d\\'
ham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Job, David, aiTo's iron KUTOO TvyyavtaVy eicelvov dvta
Samuel, Eliseus, Daniel, aliique quam- iron (fJLST') 'Afipad/jL fGewprjare. O-TTCOS 8'

plurimi ante legem et in lege ; qui qui- dv fXf TavTa, SiSaffKo/JieQa Kai K TOV
dem omnes, veluti aromatum phialae sive
irapovTO's pr\Tov Kai CK Tra'crTjs T^S 0eia9
areolas, sanctissimae justitiae odores ac
ypacpijs, cv evTraOeiais elvai TOV evo-e(3fj,
fructus suavissime oluerunt. Tune enim TOV oe dSiKov ev TOIS Ka-raXXjjXois KoXa-
paradisum triumphator ingressus est, cum creffiv. eTepoii Se eoofce TOV irapaSeitrov
ad inferos penetravit. Adest nobis ipse
ev ovpavip flvai. o fie d-TrXoi/s c/c/cXrjtrt-
Deus hac in re testis, cum in cruce latroni
aa-TTJs dKO\ou6ii<Tfi fidXXov Ty icTTOpia.
(sese illi
ipsi religiosissime commendanti) Olympiodor. in Ecclesiast. cap. iii.
clementissime respondit, Hodie mecum
336 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

thief, This day shalt thou be with me in paradise. And


it is to be known the history teacheth paradise to be
that

upon earth ; but some have said that paradise also is in


hades and therefore," say they, " the rich man saw Laza-
;

rus; but he being somewhere below, beheld the other with


Abraham somewhere above. Yet howsoever the matter goeth,
this we are taught, as well out of Ecclesiastes as out of all
the sacred Scriptures, that the godly man is in a good estate,
and the wicked on the other side in torments. Others ag;ain
O
have been of the mind that paradise is in heaven, Sec."
Hitherto Olympiodorus.
That " Christ's soul went into paradise," 493 Doctor
" well For his
Bishop saith, being understood, is true.
soul in hell had the joys of paradise ; but to make that an

exposition of Christ's descending into hell, is to expound


a thing by the flat contrary of it." Yet this " ridiculous"
exposition he affirmeth to be "received of most Protestants;"
which is even as true as that which he avoucheth in the
same place, that this article of the descent into hell is to
be found " 494 in the old Roman Creed expounded by Ruffi-
nus ;" where Ruffinus, as we have heard, expounding that
Article, delivereth the Jlat contrary, that it is
" not found
added in the Creed of the Church of Rome." It is true,
" most Protestants" do
indeed, that more than interpret
the words of Christ uttered unto the thief upon the cross,
Luke xxiii. 43, of the going of his soul into paradise;
where our Saviour meaning simply and plainly that he
would be that day in 495 heaven, Master Bishop would have
him so to be understood as if he had meant that that day
he would be in hell. And must it be now held more ridi-
culous in Protestants to take hell for paradise, than in

Master Bishop to take paradise for hell? KareX&Wct ets


acW be the words of the Apostles' Creed in the Greek, and
KareXOwv eie TOV a&riv, in the Symbol of 496 Athanasius.

Oper. Athanas. Tom. u. p. 39,


493 496
Bishop's Answer to Perkins's Ad- j
edit,

vertisement, p. 9. Graeco-Lat. vel K<vrij\9ev cv a&ov, ut ha-


494
Ibid. p. 8. betur in Horis B. Mariae Virginis, se-
495
Suarez. Tom. 11. in part. HI. Tho. cundum consuetudinem Romanae Curias,
Quaest. XLVI. Art. 11, and Quaest. LII. Graece ab Aldo editis, sive, KaT?j\f)ev
Art. S.Disput. xmi.
sect. 4. Bellarm. eis a<5ov, ut rectius habent editiones
de Sanctor. Beatitud. lib. i. cap. 3. Test. aliae.

iv. See before, p. 240.


VIIJ. J OF LIMBUS PATKUM. 3.37

Some Protestants do observe, that in these words


learned
there no determinate mention made either of ascending
is

or descending, either of heaven or hell, taking hell according


to the vulgar acception, but of the general only, under which
these contraries are comprehended and that
indifferently ;

the words, literally interpreted, import no more but this:


HE WENT UNTO THE OTHER WORLD. Which is not " to
11

expound a thing by the flat contrary of it, as Master

Bishop fancieth ; who may quickly make himself ridiculous


in taking upon him thus to censure the interpretations of
our learned linguists, unless his own skill in the languages

were greater than as yet he hath given proof of.


Master Broughton, (with whose authority he elsewhere
presseth us, as of a man " 497
esteemed to be singularly seen
1
in the Hebrew and Greek tongues, ') hath been but too
forward in maintaining that exposition which by Dr Bishop
is accounted so ridiculous. In one place touching the term
hell, as it doth answer the Hebrew sheol and the Greek hades,
he writeth thus: " 498 He that thinketh it ever used for
Tartara or Gehenna, otherwise than the term death may
by synecdoche import so, hath not skill in Hebrew, or that
Greek which breathing and live Graecia spake, if God hath
lent me any judgment that way." In 4 " another place he
allegeth out of Portus's Dictionary, that the Macedonian
Greek usually termed heaven haiden, and that our Lord's
Prayer in vulgar Greek saith, Our Father which art in
hades. One of his acquaintance beyond the sea reporteth
" 500
ancient manu-
that he should deliver, that in many most
Prayer is found with this beginning,
script copies'" the Lord's
Ha,Tp ty/uoif/ o ev aSrj, Our Father which art in hades ;
which I for my part will then believe to be true, when I
shall see one of those old
copies with mine own eyes. But
in the mean time for hades it hath been
sufficiently declared
before out of good authors, that "
it
signifieth the place of

497 500
Bishop's Preface to the second part Inveniri insuper asserit in multis ve-
of the Reformation of Perkins's Catholic, tustissimis exemplaribus MSS. orationem
p. 19. Dominicam in hunc modum IlaTe/o ij/uwi/
:

498
Broughton in his Epistle to the o ev Pater noster qui es in inferno,
<*<$>;,

Nobility of England, edit. ann. 1595, &c. Veteres quoque Macedones aliter
p. 38. orationem Dominicam nunquam precatos
499 fuisse. Jo. Rodolph. Lavator. de De-
Require of consent, edit. ann. 1611,
p. 21. scensu ad Inferos, lib. i. part. i. cap. 8.
Y
338 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [(JHAP.

souls departed" in general, and so is of extent large enough


to comprehend under it as well ToV eV as Da-
ovpavw qSrjv,
mascius speaketh, " that part of hades which is in heaven,"
as which by 501 Joseph us is called q^rjs cr/coTtwTe/oo?,
that
602
the darker hades, and in the Gospel TO CT/COTO? TO e^wTtpov,
outer darkness ; and therefore, as the word flesh, in the
vulgar acception of the term, is opposed to fish, but as it
is taken to express the Greek word is of so ample
crdp%,
it fetcheth within the
a reach that compass thereof both the
one and the other, (so that we say in 1 Cor. xv. 39, that
there is one flesh of beasts, and another of fishes,) in like
manner also the word hell, though in the vulgar use it be
taken for that which is opposite to heaven, yet as it is
applied to represent the signification of the Greek word

qSrjs,
Master JBroughton might well defend that it is of so
large a capacity that heaven itself may be comprised within
the notion thereof: heaven, I say, not considered as it is

a place of and perfection, nor as


life it shall be after the
general resurrection, but so far forth only as death, the
last enemy that shall be destroyed, hath any footing
therein; that is to say, as it is the receptacle of the
spirits
of dead men held as yet dissevered from their bodies ; which
state of dissolution, though carried to heaven itself, is still
a part of death's 504 victory and the saints' 505 imperfection.
As for Kare\0eli' 9 the other word, in the Acts of the

Apostles it is used ten times, and in none of all those


places signifieth any descending from a higher place unto
a lower, but a removing simply from one place unto another.

Whereupon the vulgar Latin edition, which none of the


Romanists " 506 upon any pretence may presume to reject,"
doth render it there by the general terms of 5m abeo, ^venio,
devenio, supervenio; and where it retaineth the word
* u
descendo, it intendeth nothing less than to signify thereby
the lower situation of the place unto which the removal is

501 audeat vel praesumat.


Joseph, de Bello Judaic, lib. iii. ,
Concil. Trident,

cap. 25, p. 785. i


Ses. 4.
502 507 Acts
Matth. viii. 12, and xxii. 13, and !
xiii. 4.
508 and xxvii.
xxv. 30. Acts xviii. 5, 5.
509
503
1 Cor. xv. 26. Acts ix. 32.
51
504 1
Cor. xv. 54, 5o. Acts xi. 27, and xxi. 10.
505 5U Acts and xii. and xv.
Hebr. xi. 40. viii. 5, 19, 1,
506
Nemo illam rejicere quovis pruetextu and xviii. 22.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PATRUM. 339

noted to be made. If descending, therefore, in the Acts


of the Apostles, imply no such kind of thing, what
necessity
is there that thus of force it must be interpreted in the
Creed of the Apostles? Menelaus declared unto us, ftov-
\6cr9ai KctTeXOovTas vimas yiveffOai irpos Tots to/o/s, saith

King Antiochus unto the Jews, 2 Maccab. xi. 29.


in his epistle
Velle vos descendere ad vestros, it is in the Latin edition;

whereby what else is meant but that they had a desire to


go unto their own ? So the Hebrew word "ns which an-
swereth to this of descending, the Seventy do render by
512
|0^o/iai, ^ciep-xofjLdi,
and 514 etT6/o^oyuai and in the self- ;

same place, and with the selfsame breath as it were, express


it both by KaTaflaivto and Tropevo/uiai, 5I5 descending and
516
going; yea, by Karaftaivw and avaflaivw too, descending
and ascending promiscuously. Ruth iii. 3, 6. I omit the
phrases of descending in prcelium, in forum, in campum,
in amicitiam, in causam, &c. which are so usual in
good
Latin authors ; yea, and of " descending into heaven" it-
self, if that be not a jest which the poet breaketh upon
Claudius :

517
Praecordia pressit
Ille senis, tremulumque caput descendere jussit
In coelum.

But sure I am that the daughter of Jephtha spake in sad


518
earnest what is related in the book of Judges,
which the Seventy render, KOI
KO.I TO.
KctTaj3ii(To/jLai
opt)' Tremellius, ut abeam descen-
eTrt
dens in istos monies, " that I may go and descend unto
those mountains:" a like place whereunto is found in the
same book, where it is said that three thousand men of
Judah 1TTS
51S
descended unto the top
of the rock Etam.

512 516
1 Sam. xxix. 4, and 2 (or 4) Kings Ruth iii. 3 Kai ai/a/Sfjo-t; eir* TOV
:

ii.2. a\a). Et 6 Kai Kare/Stj eis TOV a'Xco.


:

513
Joshua xvi. 3. Atque in uno et eodem versu Jons i. 3 :

514
1 Sam. xxvi. 6. Kai KaT6/3rj els 'loirTrtji/, icai evpe irXolov
515
Gen. xLiii. 4 and 5 : Ei /uei/ ovv diro- teal dveftrf eis O.UTO.

TOV d&e\<t>OV 517 Juvenal.


tTTtX\TJ9 IJfJLWV fJLeQ' V/ULWV, Sat. vi.
518
KUTa^ffOfieQa' et oe /MI; ctTroo-TeXXT/s TOV Judges xi. 37.
519
dof\<t>6i/ yfJLuv fieQ' tj/iwi/, ou Tropfva-6- Judges xv. 11 Descendentes ad
:

scopulum petra? Hethani. Tremel.


Y2
340 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [cHAP.

Others add unto this, that the phrase of descending ad

inferos a popular kind of speech which sprung from the


is

opinion that was vulgarly conceived of the situation of the


receptacle of the souls under the earth, and that, according
to the rule of Aristotle in his Topics, we must speak as
the vulgar, but think as wise men do. Even as we use to
is under a cloud, because it
say commonly that the sun
is a vulgar form of speech, and yet it is far enough from
our meaning for all that to imagine the cloud to be indeed
higher than the sun. So Cicero, they say, wherever he
hath occasion to mention any thing that concerneth the
dead, speaketh still of inferi, according to the vulgar phrase,
although he misliked the vulgar opinion which bred that
manner of speaking, and professed it to be his judgment that
" 520 the souls when
they depart out of the body are carried
up on high," and not downward unto any habitations under
the earth. So Chrysostom and Theophylact think, that the
Apostle termed the death and hell unto which our Saviour
did descend the lower parts of the earth, Ephes. iv. 9,
521 522
OTTO rrjs rwv avO pwwwv vTrovoias, from the common
opinion of men ; as in the translation of the holy Scripture
St Jerome sheweth that we use the names of Arcturus and
Orion, not approving thereby the ridiculous and monstrous
figments of the poets in this matter, but expressing the
Hebrew names of these constellations " by the words of
heathenish because " 523
we cannot understand that
fables,"
which is said but by those words which we have learned
by use and drunk in by error."
And just so standeth the case with this word hades,
which in the dictionary set out with the Complutense Bible
anno 1515, for the understanding of the New Testament, is
interpreted infernus and Pluto. This Pluto the heathen
feigned to be the god of the dead under the earth, the
Grecians terming him so TOU TrXovrov, as the Latins
CLTTO

Ditem a " 524 because that all


from
divitiis, riches,things
coming to their dissolution, there is nothing which is not

523
520
Animos cum e corpora excesserint Qui non possumus intelligere quod
in sublime ferri. Cicer.Tusculan.Quaest. dicitur, nisi per ea vocabula qua? usu di-
lib. i. dicimus, et errore combibimus. Hieronym.
621
Chrysost. in Ephes. Homil, xi. lib. ii. in Amos cap. v,
524
522
Theophylact. in Ephes. cap. iv. Phumutus de Nat. Deor. in Plutone.
VIII. J OF LJMBUS PATRUM. 341

at last brought unto him and made his possession." Thus


Homer and Hesiod, with
5~ 5
Plato and others after them,
say that Rhea brought forth three sons to Saturn, Jupiter,
Neptune,
' ' ' * ' '
526 *Lft A ' ^ rt * /I '
^ '
\

l(put/uiov
T Aidrjv, os VTTO
^ovi ow/mctTa vaii 9

NffXeeV IJTOp ^WV 9


" and
mighty Hades, who inhabiteth the houses under the
earth,having a merciless heart ;" for that attribute doth
Hesiod give unto him, because death spareth no man. So
Homer :

527'
evepoiviv CLVOLGGW

which is also the description that Hesiod maketh of him


in that verse,

ara" 'A'idrjs o
evepoun KaTa(pQt/u.evoi(Tiv dvd

" Hades was who reigneth over them that lie dead
afraid,
in the earth."Philo Byblius relateth out of Sanchoniathon,
a more ancient writer than either Homer or Hesiod, not
only that he was the son of Saturn and Rhea, but also
529
that his him after his death, and that
father did canonize
the Phoenicians call him both Pluto and Muth, which an-
swereth to the Hebrew JTID, and in their language signifieth
death. The Grecians, who had from the Phoenicians their
firstgods as well as their first letters, tell us further that
53
this Hades, or Pluto, was he who shewed men those things
that did concern " burials, and funeral rites, and honours
of the dead, of whom
was had before his no such care
time ; and that for was esteemed the god this cause he
that bare rule over the dead, the dominion and care of them

525
Plato in Gorgia. 10
Toi/ 6' "ASrjv XeyeTai TCL irepi TOS
526
Hesiod. in Theogonia. Ta<^>cts KCLI TCCS eK<f>opds /cat Ttyua's TOJV
527 Homer. Iliad, xv. Te6i'60)Twi/ Ko.Ta.Se'ifcai, TOV irpo TOV
528
Hesiod. Theogon. fit]6e/ut'a ou<rtjs eiri/zeXetas irepl
529
"Erepoi/ avTov iraloa diro 'Peas SlO KO.I TU)V TCTcXeUTtJ/COTOJI/ 6
ovofna^oficvov Moi6 aTroQavovra dtyiepo'i. Beds OUTOS TrapeiXtj-TTTai Kvptevew, a.Tro-
Qdvarov de TOVTOV Koi H\ovT(ava <boivi- i/e/u.T)0ei(r?j5 TO 'TraXaioi' avTtp T^S TOVTOJI/
Kes 6vonaov<ri. Phylo Bybl. lib. ii. Hist. dp\fj<s /cat (frpoirridos. Diodor. Sicul.
Phoenic. apud Euseb. lib. ii. Praeparat. Bibliothec. lib. v. p. 337, edit. Graeco-
Evangelic, p. 25. Lat.
342 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [cHAF.

1'

being assigned unto him by antiquity. Whence we may see


how the word hades with them was transferred to signify
death, which was the name that the Phoenicians gave him,
together with the place into which either the bodies (of the
solemn sepulture whereof he was thought to have first shewed
the way) or the souls (over which he was imagined to have
the sovereignty) of dead men were received.
Now that KaTe\9eiv et? q.$ov, in the Creed, is a phrase
taken from the heathen and applied to express a Christian
truth, the very grammatical construction may seem to in-

timate, where the noun is not put in the accusative case,


as otherwise it should, but after the manner of the Greeks
531
in the genitive case, implying the defect of another word
necessary be understood; as if it had been said, He
to
went unto the place or house of hades, as the poets use
to express it, sometimes defectively ets dtSao, and sometimes
more fully 532 et? aiiao SO/JLOV or 533 oyuoi^, " into the house
or chambers of hades" Thus, then, they that take hades
for the common receptacle of souls, do interpret the context
of the Creed, as Cardinal Cajetan before did the narration
of Moses touching Abraham's giving up the ghost, being

gathered to his people, and being buried, Gen. xxv. 8, 9,


that the article of the " death" is to be referred to the
whole manhood and the dissolution of the parts thereof,
6<
that of the body separated from the soul,
burial" to the
and this of the " descending into hades" to the soul sepa-
rated from the body; as if it had been said, He suffered
death truly by a real separation of his soul from his body,
and after this dissolution the same did befal him that useth
to betide all other dead men his lifeless body was sent
;

unto the place which is appointed to receive dead bodies,


and his immortal soul went unto the other world, as the
souls of other men use to do.
Having now declared how the Greek hades (and so the
Latin inferi and our English hell) is taken for the place
of the bodies and of the souls of dead men severally, it
followeth that we shew how the common state of the dead

531 532 Ets Atoao


Ita Apollodorus, lib. i. Bibliothecze, S6fj.ov Karefta. Pindar.
de Orpheo: Ka-rfjXQev eis adov, h. e. ad Pyth. Od. in.
533
Plutonis descendit, ut vertit Latinus in- Nui; 6e (TV fi6v dtoao oo/xous viro
terpres, Benedictus TEgius Spoletinus. KevQea-i y<mjs"E/>xe'. Homer. Iliad, x-
VI
II.]
OF LIMB US PAT RUM. 343

signified thereby, and


is the place in general which is an-
swerable unto the parts of the whole man thus indefinitely
considered in the state of separation. Concerning which
that place of Dionysius, wherein he setteth forth the sig-
nification of our being dead and buried with Christ by
is to be considered:
" 5^ Forasmuch as death is
baptism,
in us not an utter extinguishment of our being, as others
have thought, but a separation of the united parts, bringing
them unto that which is to us invisible ; the soul as being
by the deprivation of the body made unseen, and the body
as either being covered in the earth, or, by some other of
the alterations that are incident unto bodies, being taken
away from the sight of man, the whole covering of the
man in water is fitly assumed for an image of the death
and burial which is not seen." Thus Dionysius concerning
the separation of the united parts by death, and the bringing
of them unto that which is "invisible;" ^according where-
"
unto, as his paraphrast Pachy meres noteth, it is called

hades, say, an invisible separation of the soul


that is to
from the body." And so indeed we find as well in foreign
authors, as in the Scriptures and the writings of the Greek
and Latin Fathers, that hades and inferi are not only taken
in as large a sense as death, (and so extended unto all
men indifferently, whether good or bad), but are likewise
oftentimes indifferently used for it. For proof whereof
out of heathen authors, these testimonies following may
suffice :

a TOL XdOerai

" The man that doth


saith Pindarus. things befitting him
forgetteth hades ," meaning, that the remembrance of death
doth no whit trouble him. And again :

d^avi^ofievoV oiKelws n 61 WOTOS 6\iKtj


534
'Eireimj BctWro's koTiv e<' i}fiwv ov \

1S Ttjl/ TOU QaVUTOV KOI TOW


ou<rias dvvTrapia, KCLTO. TO fidfcav
, dX\' tj Ttov qvatfJievQtv ^idc/t)i(rts,
eis TO r\fjiiv agaves dyovira' TI]V \l/W)(i)V Dionys. Ecclesiast. Hierarch. cap. 2.
535 KctTa TOVTO
fjiev aJs ev orTep^trei <rw/uaTos detSfj yiyvo- yap Kai a<5tjs XeyeTai,
,
TO a-wfJia ^6, a>s ei/ yfj K TOUT' ta-Tiv, b o</>aj/js \tapicr/j.6s \l/v%TJ<;

vov, KaQ' eTepav Tivd TWV


/ OTTO (ra)'/LiccTov. Georg. Pachymer. ibid.
dXXoiwa-etov, CK T^S KUT' auOpootrov
930 Pindar. Olymp. Od. vin.
344 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [cHAI*.

~Toiaicrii> opydis ev^erat


avTiaaas d'ioav yrj-

pds re Se^acrOai TroXiov


o KXeoviKOv

" The son of Cleonicus wisheth that with manners


such
he may meet and receive hades (that is, death) and hoar
old age." The like hath Euripides in his Alcestis :

- Death is near hand,


And darksome night doth creep upon mine eyes.

and another poet, cited by


^ Plutarch :

'Q OavaTe iraidv larpos jmo\ois'

yap OVTO)S aiSas dv alav.

" O death, the sovereign physician, come ; for hades is

in very truth the haven of the earth." So the saying,


" the best have been born, and
that thing were never to
the next to that to die quickly," is thus expressed by
Theognis in his Elegies :

inev fJirj eTri


(fivvai
eGioeiv avyds ofe'os rjeXiou'
<$>VVTCL &' 07Tft)S WKKTTa TTvXcLS diSdO 7Tpr)(TCU,
Kat KelcrOai 7ro\\rjv yrjv e7ra/x/(7a/xi/o'.

Sophocles, in the beginning of his Trachiniae, bringeth


in Deianira affirming, that howsoever it were an old saying

among men, that none could know whether a man's life


were happy or unhappy " before he were dead," yet she
knew her own to be heavy and unfortunate " before she
went to hades:"

'J&yU) $6 TOV 6/U.OP, KCU TTplV tS CtOOV fJLO\lV9

''EjfoieT 6%ovaa ivffTV^ re KCII


fiapvv.

537 538 539 '


Find. Isthm. Od. vi. Plutarch, de Consolat. ad Apollon. Al.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS FATRUM. 345

where 619 q$ou /moXelv is the same with Trpo OUVUTOU,


irplv
before death ; as both the ancient Scholiast and the matter
itself doth shew. So in his Ajax :

ot^ct KevOcov, vocrcov HJLCLTCLV.


KpeiaGwv yap rj

"He is hades" that is to say, he that


better that lieth in
is dead, o reOvrjKws, as the Scholiast rightly expoundeth it,
" than he that is sick past recovery :" and in his Anti-
gone :

M^TjOos eT ei;
q$ov Kal vrctTpos KeKevQoroiv,
OVK ear' a5e\<^)o9 OCTTIS civ /3\ao"ro7 TTOTC.

" father and mother being laid in hades, it is not possi-


My
ble that any brother should spring forth afterward." Where-
with M0 Clemens Alexandrinus doth fitly compare that speech
of the wife of Intaphernes in 541 Herodotus Harpo? 3e /ecu :

* / ~c// '
^ N -i > * ''v A '
^ t '

JULrjTpOS
OVK. Tl fJLV ((tiOVTWVj ClO\(pOS CLV ttAAO? OVOCVl TpOTTM
" father and mother being now no longer living,
yevoiro, My
another brother by no manner of means can be had." So
that ev aSou KCKevOoToiv or Terety^oroti/, being in hades,
with the one, is the same with OVK en ^OJOI'TWI/, not now
living, in the other ; or, as it is
alleged by Clemens, OVK eV
OVTMV, not now being, which is the Scripture phrase of
them that have left world, Gen. v. 24, and xLii. 36;
this
Psalm xxxix. 13; Jer. xxxi. 15, and XL!X. 10; used also by

Homer, in his Boeotia :

Ov yelp T Otvijos jjieyaXrjTopos vices rjaav,


Ovo dp T ai)ro9 rjv, Gave $e %av9o

Touching the use of the word HELL in the Scriptures,


thus writeth Jansenius, expounding those words, Proverbs
xv. 11, Hell and destruction are before the Lord: how much
more then the hearts the children men? " M2 It is to
of of
be known, that by hell and
destruction, which two in the
Scriptures are often joined together, the state of the dead

540
(Jlem. Stromat. lib. vi. | scripturis ssepe conjunguntur, significatur
541
Herodot. Histor. lib. iii. l

status mortuorum ; et non solum damna-


548
Sciendum quod per infernum (pro |
torum, ut nos fere ex his vocibus auditis
quo dictio Hebraica proprie significat j
concipimus, sed in genere status defunc-
sepulchrum) et perditionem, quae duo in |
torum. Cornel. Jansen. in Proverb, xv.
346 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [cHAF.
/
is
signified, and not of the damned only, as we commonly
do conceive when we hear these words, but the state of the
deceased in general." So 533 Sanctius the Jesuit, with Sa his
fellow, acknowledgeth that hell in Scripture is frequently
taken for death. Therefore are these two joined together,
Rev. i. 18, / have the keys of hell and of death, or, as other
Greek copies read, agreeably Latin and Ethi-to the old

opian translation, of death and of hell ; and Isaiah xxviii. 15,


We have made a covenant with death, and with hell we
are at agreement. Where the Septuagint, to shew that
the same thing is meant by both the words, do place the
one in the room of the other after this manner We have :

made a covenant with hell, and with death an agreement.


The same things likewise are indifferently attributed unto
them both as that they are unsatiable and never full,
;

spoken of hell, Proverbs xxvii. 20, and of death, Habakkuk


ii. 5. So the gates of hell, Isaiah xxxviii. 10, are the gates
of death, Psaltn ix. 13, and cvii. 18. The not being justi-
fied until hell, or hades, Ecclesiastic, ix. 17, the same with
not having their iniquity remitted until death, Isaiah xxii.
14. And therefore where we read in the Book of Wisdom,
544
Thou the gates of hell and bringest back
leadest
to

again, vulgar Latin translateth it, ^Thou leadest


the
to the gates of death and bringest back again. So the
sorrows of death, Psalm xviii. 4, are in the verse following
termed the sorrows of hell and therefore the Seventy, as
:

hath been shewed, translating the selfsame words of David,


do in the Psalm render them the sorrows of hell, and in
the history, 2 Sam. xxii. 6, where the same Psalm is repeated,
the sorrows of death. Whence also that difference of read-
ing came, Acts ii. 24, as well in the copies of the text as
in the citations of the ancient Fathers ; which was the less
regarded, because that variety in the words bred little or
no difference at all in the sense. Therefore Epiphanius in
one place, having respect to the beginning of the verse,
saith that Christ loosed ^a&vaf Oavarov, the sorrows of
death ; and yet in another, citing the latter end of the verse,

543 545 Deducis ad portas mortis et reducis.


Gasp. Sanct. in Act. ii. sect.

56. Latin, ibid.


546
ets TruAas aoov, K(tl dvd- Epiphan. in Anacephaleosi, p. 531,
Sapient, xvi. IS. edit. Graec.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PAX11UM. 347

because it was not


should be holden by it,
possible he
M Tovrecmv "'

addeth this explication thereunto, JTTO TOV ci'^oi/,


that is to say, by hell. And the author of the sermon upon
Christ's passion, among the works of Athanasius, one where
s
saith, that he loosed the sorrows of hell, and other where,
that he loosed the sorrows of death. Unto whom we 54<J

550
may adjoin Bede, who is in like manner indifferent for
either reading.
In the Proverbs, where it is said, There is a way
which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are
the ways of death, Proverbs xiv. 12, and xvi. 25, the

Seventy in both places for death put 7rt0/ueVa q$ov, the


bottom of hell; and on the other side, where it is said,
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul

from hell, Proverbs xxiii. 14, they read, TI/J/ \|/i/^>Ji/ avTov e/c

Qavdrov pvcrr],
Thou shalt deliver his soul from death. So
in 14, where the Hebrew and Greek both read,
Hosea xiii.

/ them from the hand of hell, the vulgar Latin


will deliver
" I will deliver them from
hath, De manu mortis liberabo eos,
the hand of death ;" which St Cyril of Alexandria sheweth
to be the same in effect for " 551 he hath redeemed us,"
;

saith he, " from the hand of hell," that is to " from
say,
the power of death." So out of the text, Matth. xvi. 18,
Eusebius noteth that the Church doth " 552 not give place to
the gates of DEATH, for that one saying which Christ did
Upon this rock I will build my Church ; and the gates
utter,

of HELL shall not prevail against it. St Ambrose also


from the same text collecteth that " M3
faith is the
thus,
foundation of the Church ; of for it was not said of the flesh

Peter, but of the faith, that the gates of DEATH should not
prevail against it; but the confession (of the faith) over-

547 853
Id. in Anchorato,p.484. Videetiam 'AXX' ovSe TCUS TOV QavaTov TruXous
eund. contra Ariomanit. Hzeres. LXIX. vTro%(opov<ra, Sid fiiav Keivt]v, i}v CUTOS
p. 337. aTre<pijvaTO Xeii/, eiiriav, 'EiriTJ/i; TreV/oai/
548
Athanas. Oper. Graeco-Lat. Tom. o'iK.ooo/j.i]<r<a u.ov T>JJ/ e/c/cXjjcriaj/, /cat irvXat

i. p. 801. (ifiov ov Ka.Tia'xyoovcriv OUTT/S. Euseb.


549
Ibid. p. 805. Praeparat. Evangelic, lib. i.
p. 7.
550 553
Solutos per Dominum dicit dolores Fides ergo est ecclesias fundamen-
inferni, sive mortis. Bed. Retract, in tum. Non enim de carne Petri, sed de
Act. cap. ii. fide dictum est, quia ports? mortis ei non

pra^valebunt ; sed confessio vicit infer-


TOVTZOTIV, K TTJS TOV Qa.VU.TOV num. Ambros. de Incarnat. Sacrament.
tas. Cyril, in Jloseam, p. 371. cap. 5.
348 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

came HELL." The " 554


dissolution of the soul from the
saith not only called death, but " is
body," Chrysostom,
hell (or hades) also. For listen to the Patriarch Jacob
saying, Ye shall bring mine old age with sorrow to hell,
Gen. and the Prophet again, Hell hath opened
xLii. 38 ;

her mouthy Isaiah v." 14 and again, another Prophet saying, ;

He will deliver me from the lowest hell, Psalm Lxxxvi. 13 ;

and in many places shall you find in the Old Testament


that our translation from hence is called death and hell."
So Theodoret noteth that the 555 name of hell is given
unto death in that place, Cantic. viii. 6, Love is strong
as death, jealousy is hard or cruel as hell; which in the

writings of the Fathers is a thing very usual. Take the


poems of Theodorus Prodromus for an instance, where, de-
livering a history out of the life of St Chrysostom of a
woman that had lost four of her sons, he saith that they
four were gone unto hades,
t >/ \ N'
A $ ' ' / ^
7rei/T ereKes, aAA Atoosoe
Oi iriffvpes
KOI o TTOT/UOI/.

And how St Basil had freed the country of Cappa-


relating
docia from a famine, thus he expresseth it:

, d/u.<pl
S

BcoJ/e \wypov OavaToio' o dyval BctcnXeiov


f i * ' '
A > ^
ApTTacrav K or Aioao.

And shewing how Gregory Nazianzen, when he was a child,


was recovered from death by being brought^ to the Com-
munion Table, he saith he was brought unto the sun from
hades :

Kal Ta-% ai/ e'f Atoao /uLeOi^Tai qe

554 Ov QdvaTov Kal adqv


fiovov Se 0ai/aTos efcaXeiTO rj 8ta- KaXov/uLevrjv rrjv tvrev-
Xuo-ts TT; \]/V)(TJS a-TTo TOU <ra)/iaTos, Qev fieTdarrao-tv. Chrysost. Serm. n. in
aXXa Kal a'5t;s. "A.Kove yap TOV /xei>
Pascha. Tom. v. edit. Savil. p. 58. h.

iraTpidpyov 'IaKaJ/3 Xeyoj^ros, KaTaeTe Vide et Serm. LXXXI. in nomen Coe-


TO yrjpds fjiov fJLeTa XUTTTJS eis adov* TOV de miterii et Crucem, ibid. p. 563. lin.

Trpo<j>i'\Tov TrdXiv, "E^avev o a'5rjs TO <TTO- 35, 36.


555
/ma avTov' Kal ird\iv eTepov Infernum autem ex opinion e, quae
Xeyoi/Tos, 'Pvarerai fj.e e ado invaluit, usurpavit ; hoc etiam morti nomen
Kal TroXXaxoy u/otj<rets eirl T^S TraXotas imponens. Theod. in Cantic. viii.
VIII.] OF MMBUS PATRUM. 349

Gregory himself likewise in his poems, setting out the


" 556
dangers of a seafaring life, saith that the greater part
"
of them that sail the seas is in hades and the Grecians,
in their prayer for the time of the plague, complain that
" ^all are taken
together miserably, and sent unto hades"
Basil of Seleucia, speaking of the translation of Enoch and
" 658 Enoch remained out of
Elias, saith in one place, that
deaths net, Elias obeyed not the laws of nature;" and in
another, that " 559 Elias remained to Enoch superior death,
by hades" making death and hades to
translation declined
be one and the same thing. So he maketh Elias to pray
thus at the of the widow's son: " 560
raising O Lord, Shew,
that death is made gentle towards men; let it learn the
evidences of thy humanity ; let the documents of thy good-
ness come even to hades" And as he there noteth that
M1
death received an overthrow from Elias, so in another
56*
place he noteth, that hades received a like overthrow by
CHRIST'S raising of the dead. Whereupon he bringeth in
St Peter using this speech unto our Saviour: " 563
Shall death
make any youthful attempt against thee, whose voice hades
could not endure ? The other day thou didst call the widow's
son that was dead, and death fled, not being able to accom-

pany him unto the grave whom he had overcome: how


shall death therefore lay hold on him whom it feareth ?"
and our Saviour himself speaking thus unto his disciples:
44 564
ar j ge QUt Q f t^ e g rave5 renewing the resurrection;

56
HoVTOTTOpWU TO TT\OV fiv dioij .
11
'O KCLT dvQpcaTroav O/'TTI;TOS Qdva-
Nazianz. Carm. xv. de Vitae Itinerib. TOS, Tr]v r\TTav Sid TOV 'HAi'ai/ efidvQave.
Tom. ii. edit. Graeco-Lat. p. 91. Ibid.
55^
TldvTwv ctirXois O/JLOU (pOeipo/mevoov
52
Ne/cpos efccopiyveiTo TOV aSov TIJI/
e\6iz/ws, Kul irapctTrefjiirofievwv TU> ady. TJTTUV. Id. in illud, Ecce ascendimrts
Grace. Eucholog. fol. 197. Hierosolym. p. 265.
8 563
'Ei/a>x e/uLevev eeo T^S TOV davaTOv KctTct (TOV veavievcreTai 0aj/aTos, o5

ffcryfjvtjs, 'HXias TOIS TT/S <pv<r<a<3 ov\ <f)(avnv OVK ijj/ey/cej/ a'5rjv; Trpwijv e/idXeo-a?
'

uirjjKova-e vopois. Basil. Seleuc. in Jonam, TtJ0l/TJ/COTGC TOV ddvdTOS


T?/S X^/009 V 1 OV, O
Orat. ii. p. 114. e^wyei/, ouot jne'xpi TOV Ta<pov irapooev-
59
'HXias dvwTepw 6ava.Tou ^fp.evt]Kev, orat Tw KKpaTt]fJievio cvvdnevo?. irais ovv

'Ef a>x /nTa6to-et TOV a&riv eev\ti/e. Id. in ov TT60o/3jTai, ^e'^cTai OdvaToi Ibid, ;

illud, Ecce ascendimus Hierosolym. p. 268. p. 268.


50 564
Aeloi/, a! oe<nroTa, /cat 6d.va.Tov 'AvaarTtjaofiat Ta(pov Kaivovpyuiv
TT/OOS dvQp<oTrovi ^fJLepovfjLevov, fJLavQaveTca TI]V dvatTTatriv' otod^io TOV a
Ta T^S arfjs (friXavQpuaTrias yv(api<rfjLaTa, Trepifieveiv at/ao-rao-iV ev e/xoi ydp
(pQavcTta Kai ax/ i9 adov Ta T^S tr^s ctya- QdvaTOi iravcTat, KUI ddavavia (pvT
oy^ua-ra. Id. in Eliam, p. 97- Tai. Ib. p. 267.
350 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

I will teach hades that it must


expect the resurrection to
succeed it. For in me both death ceaseth and immortality
is
planted." So saith St Cyril of Alexandria: " 565 Christ was
raised up for us; for he could not be detained
by the gates
of hades, nor taken at all by the bonds of death." And
therefore Cyril of Jerusalem, having said that our Saviour
did " 56G descend into hades" doth presently add as an ex-
" for he
planation thereof, KaTrjXOe yap et? TOV Odvarov,
did descend into death." " 567 He descended into death as
a saith The divine nature," saith
Athanasius. " 568
man,"
the divine "
Ruffinus, meaning Person, by his flesh descended
into death, not that according to the law of mortal men he
should be detained of death, but that rising again by him-
self he might open the gates of death." " 569 When thou
didst descend into death, O immortal Life," say the Grecians
in their Liturgy, " thou didst then
mortify hades, or hell,
with the brightness of thy divinity."
And thus, if my memory do not fail me, (for at this

present have not the book which I used), is the article


I

expressed in the Hebrew Creed which is printed with Potken's


^Ethiopian Syllabary, DID ^6 TV, He descended into the
570

shadow of death : where the Hebrew interpreter doth render


hades by the shadow of death, as the Greek interpreters in
571
that text, which by the Fathers is applied to our Saviour's
descent into hell, Job xxxviii. 17, do render the shadow of
death by hades. For where the Hebrew hath JTID *7X ^yttk
the gates of the shadow of death, they render HvXwpol $$ov
ere e-TTTjffai/,
the keepers of the gates of hades, seeing

565
'EytjyepTai inrep rjjuaiv 6 Xpitrros' TJ dQdvaTO-s, TOTC TOV ciSrjv eveKpOMTO.'s TTJ

ov yap yeyove KO.TO\OS Tats aSov TruXais, dcTTpaTrrj T^S OCOTTJTOS. Octoech. Ana-
OVTC p.ev els airav tjXcoTots (leg. tj'Xeo Tins) Evang. Chrysostom. Latin,
stas. Graec. et

TOV QavaTov ^ecr/uoTs. Cyril. Alexand. a Leone Thusco edit.


570
Glaphyr. in Genes, lib. v. p. 121. Syllabar. yEthiopic. quod habetur in
566
Cyril. Hierosol. Cateches. xiv. quibusdam exemplaribus Psalterii, edit.
567 'tis TOV OdvaTOV KCLTO.- Hebraic. Graec. Latin, et JSthiopic. in fol.
d'vdpfOTTOi els
571
/3as. Athan. de Incarnat. Verbi, contra Athanas. Orat. iv. contra Arian.
Gentes, p. 77
'

Tom. i. edit. Graeco-Lat. p. 291 ; Serm.


sea
Divina natura in mortem per carnem in Passion, et Cruc. Dom. ibid. p. 80;
descendit, non ut lege mortalium detine- Quaest. i. ad Antioch. Tom. u. p. 321 ;
retur a morte, sed ut per se resurrecturus Euseb. lib. v. Demonstrat. Evangelic,
januas mortis aperiret. Ruffin. in Expo- p. 155, et lib. x. p. 313, edit. Graec.;
sit. Symbol. Caesarius, Dial. in. p. 1132, edit. Basil.
569
"()Te KUTljXOeS 7T00S QaVUTOV, J/ ^WTJ See before, p. 268.
VIII.]
OF I.IMBUS PATRUM. 351

thee, shrunk for fear. " 5T2 The resurrection from the dead,"
" the end" of our Saviour's "
therefore, being suffering," as
Eusebius noteth, and so the beginning of his glorifying, the
first
degree of his exaltation would thus very aptly answer
unto the degree of his humiliation ; that, as his resur-
last
"
rection arising from the dead," so his descending
is an
unto hades, or ad inferos, should be no other thing but
" a
going to the dead." For further confirmation whereof
let be considered that St Jerome, in the vulgar Latin
it

translation of the Bible, hath ad inferos deducentur, Eccle-


siastes ix. 3, where the Hebrew and Greek read to the dead ;
and in like manner, Proverbs ii. 18, he hath ad inferos again,
where D^NSI is in the Hebrew, which being a word that
sometimes signifieth the dead, and sometimes giants, the
Seventy do join both together and read Trapd r o qSy /uera t

TWV yrjyevtav, in hades with the giants. So in the Sibylline


573
Verses cited by Lactantius,

\a\rjcrri,

" that he 574


may speak unto the dead," is in Prosper trans-
lated Ut inferis loquatur ; and those other verses
touching
our Saviour's resurrection,

TOT
K:\IJTOIS

" Then
coming forth from the dead, &c." are thus turned
576
into Latin in Prosper Tune ab inferis regressus, ad lu-
:

cem veniet primus resurrectionis principio revocatis ostenso,


" Then
returning from hell, he shall come unto the light,
firstshewing the beginning of the resurrection unto those
whom he shall call back" from thence. For " 577 Christ
returning back a conqueror from hades unto life," as Basil
of Seleucia writeth, " the dead were taught the reviving

again unto life." His " 578 rising from the dead was the

TOV TTooU? K VKp(t)V 877 At'


c ij tjs (o-apKos) ol veKpoi TTJI/ sts
ai/a<rra<ri ijv. Eusebius, Demonstrat. dvafiiioaiv 01
fiiov 8tSd-)(Qijaraif t TJS e^
Evangelic, lib. x. p. 307. a'oov viKi)<t>opo<i irpo<i %univ a'j/fXrjXufle.
573
Lactant. Institut. lib. iv. cap. 18. Basil. Seleuc. in Jonam, Orat. n.
574 578
Prosper, de Promiss. et Praedict. jj fe (leg. o
K) vcKpwv eyc/ocrts e
part. in. cap. 20. adov Gregor. Nazianz. in Defini-
X-uo-is.
575
Lactant. ut supra, cap. 19. tionib. Iambic, xv. Tom. IT. edit. Graeco-
f' 7fi
Prosper, ut supra, cap. 29. Lat. p. 201.
352 ANSWER TO A JESUIT\S CHALLENGE. [cHAF.

u579
loosing of us from hades" saith Gregory Nazianzen. He
was raised from hades, or from the dead, and raised me
being dead with hinV saith Nectarius, his successor in the
see of Constantinople. Therefore is he called U580 the first-
begotten of the dead, because he was the first that rose
from hades, as we also shall rise at his second coming, 1 ''

saith the author of the Treatise of Definitions


amongst the
works of Athanasius.
To lay down all the places of the Fathers wherein our
Lord's rising again from the dead is termed his
rising again
from hades, inferi, hell, would be a needless labour
or :

for this we need go no further than to the Canon of the


Mass itself, where in the prayer that followeth next after the
consecration, there being a commemoration made of Christ's
passion, resurrection, and ascension, the second is set out
the title ab " of the resurrection
by inferis resurrectionis,
from hell." For as the 581 Liturgies of the Eastern churches
do here make mention T^S e/c veKpcov avacrTa crews, of the
resurrection from the dead; so those of the 582 West retain
that other of the resurrection ab inferis, that is, Ttjs
title

e/c TOV a$ov eyepcrews, as it is in the Liturgy that goeth


under the name of St Peter, or TJJ? e/c TOV ot'<W avacrra-
crews, as it is in the Gregorian Office translated into Greek
by Codinus. If then the resurrection from the dead be the
same with the resurrection from hades, inferi, or hell, why
may not the going unto hades, inferi, or hell, be inter-
preted, by the same reason, to be the going unto the dead?
whereby no more is understood than what is intimated in
that phrase, which the Latins use of one that hath left this
world, abiit ad plures, or in that of the Hebrews so fre-
bs3
quent in the word of God, he went, or was gathered
unto his people, he went, or was gathered unto his fathers,
which being applied unto a whole generation, Judges ii. 10,
as well as in other places unto particular persons, must of

579 581
Excitatus est ab inferis, meque mor- Liturg. Jacobi, Marci, dementis,
tuum simul excitavit. Nectar. Orat. in Basilii, et Gregorii Theologi.
582
Theodor. Martyr, a Perionio convers. Ambros. de Sacrament, lib. iv. cap.
80
IIjOOTOT-o/cos yei/o/uei/os e/c TO>V i/e- 6 ; Offic. Ambrosian. Tom. i. ; Liturgic.
KpU)V, OLOTL dveffTT) TTpWTOS e/C TOV O.GOV, Pameli, p. 302; Sacramentar. Gregorian.
KaQws Kal tj^ieis /ieXXo/xei/ dvitTTaa'dcti tv Tom. n. p. 181.
TJ7 SevTepq. vrapovaict. Tract, de Definit. sss G en. xxv. 8, compared with xv. 1,%
Ji.
Oper. Athanas. Graeco-Lat. p. 59. Numb. xx. 24, and xxvii. 13, &c.
VIII.]
OF LTMHITS I'ATRU.M. 353

necessity denote the common condition of men departed out


of this life.

Now, although death and hades, dying and going to


the dead, be of near affinity one with the other, yet be

they not the same thing properly, but the one a conse-
quent of the other, as appeareth plainly by the vision,
it

Rev. vi. 8, where hades directly brought in as a follower


is

of death. 5S4
Death itself, as wise men do define it, " is
11

nothing else but the separation of the soul from the body,
which is done
in an instant but hades is the continuation
;

of the and soul in this state of separation, which


body
lasteth all that space of time which is betwixt the day of

death and the day of the resurrection. For as the state of


585
ijfe j s
comprehended betwixt two extremes, to wit, the
thereof and the
11
and there be " M6 two
beginning ending,
motions in nature answerable thereunto, the one whereby
11
the soul concurreth to the body, which we 587 call genera-
" the other 11
tion, whereby the body is severed from the soul,
which we so the state of death in like manner
call death ;

is two bounds, the beginning, which is


contained betwixt
the very same with the ending of the other, and the last
end, the motion whereunto is called the resurrection, whereby
the body and soul, formerly separated, are joined together

again. Thus there be three terms here, as it were in a


kind of a continual proportion, the middlemost whereof hath
relation to either of the extremes; and by the motion to
the first a man may be said to be natus, to the second
denatus, to the third renatus. The first and the third
have a like opposition unto the middle, and therefore are
like betwixt themselves, the one being a generation, the other
a regeneration ; for that our Lord doth u call the last resur-
*8
rection the regeneration" Matt. xix. 28, St Augustine
that " no man doubteth. 1
Neither would our
'

supposeth
584
Mortem nihil aliud esse definiunt 16
Tov tie Qeov ^>a^v ev eKaTepa <ye-
sapientes, nisi separationem animae a cor- yevfjQai TTJ TT;S </>u<reo)s i}[j.(i>v *ai/TJ<rei, Si'rjs

pore. Origen. Tractat. xxxv. in Matt, T] T \J/V)^tJ 7T/JOS


TO (TUlfJiCt ffVVTpe")(l, TO T
cap. xxvii. Vide Tertullian. de Anima, SiaKpiveTai. Ibid. cap. 16.
trutfia TT;S ^l/vyrjs
587 'H
cap. 27 et 51, et August, de Civitat. Dei, TrpwTij /avrjo-is t/v yeve<riv 6vo-
lib. xiii. cap. 6. juao/46i/. Ibid.
585 888
TTJS o);s i]/j.(ov Svo irepacrtv eicaTe- Regenerationem quippe hoc loco,
ambigente nullo, novissimam resurrectio-
<l>iininai TO TeXos. Gregor. Nyssen. nem vocat. Aug. contra duas Epist. Pe-
Orat. Catechetic. cap. 27. lagian, lib. iii. cap. 3.
Z
354 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

589
Lord himself have been styled 'O irptoroTOKOs e/c
veKpwv, the Jtrst-born from the dead, unless the resurrec-
tion were accounted to be a kind of a nativity, whereof new
he himself was in
placethe be made partaker,
first to
590
that among all, or in all things, he might have the pre-
59l
eminence, the rest of the sons of God being to be children

of the resurrection also, but in their due time, and in the


order of post-nati.
The middle distance betwixt the first and second term,
that to say, the space of life which we lead in this world
is

betwixt the time of our birth and the time of our death,
is opposite to the distance that is betwixt the second and

third term, that is to


say, the state of death under which
man from the time of his departure out of this life
lieth
unto the time of his resurrection ; and see, what difference
there is betwixt our birth and the life which we spend here
after we are born, the same difference is there betwixt death
and hades in that other state of our dissolution. That
which properly we call death, which is the parting asunder
of the soul and the body, standeth as a middle term betwixt
the state of life and the state of death, being nothing else
but the ending of the one and the beginning of the other,
and as it were a common mere between lands, or a com-
munis terminus in a geometrical magnitude, dividing part
from part, but being itself a part of neither, and yet be-

longing equally unto either. Which gave occasion to the


" 592
When
question moved by Taurus the philosopher, a

dying man might be said to die when he was now dead,


;

or while he was yet living ?*" Whereunto Gellius returneth


an answer out of Plato, 593 that his dying was to be attri-
buted neither to the time of his life nor of his death,
(because repugnances would arise either of those ways), but
to the time which was in the confine betwixt both, which
Plato calleth
594
ro eaitwjS) a moment or an instant, and

589 593 Plato neque vitae id


Rev. i. 5. tempus, neque
590"0s effTLV dp^ly 'TT/OO'TOTO/COS K TO>V morti dedit quippe utrumque esse
.(vidit

vKpu>v, 'iva yemjTai kv Traaiv auros irp<a- pugnans), sed tempori in confinio. Aul.
Tevcov. Coloss. i. 18. Gel. Noct. Attic, lib. vi. cap. 13.
594
591
Luke xx. 36. To yap e^ai^Mjs TOLOVTOV TL eoiKe
592
Quandomoriensmoreretur; cum jam <rr]/JLaiveiv, ois e e/ceu/ou fjLTaftdX\ov ets
in morte esset, au turn etiam cum in vita eTcpov (al. endrepov). Plato in Parme-
foret. Taur. nide, p. 67.
VIII.] OF MMBUS PATRUM. 355

denieth to be properly any part of time at all. Therefore


death doth his part in an instant, as hath been said; but
hades continueth that work of his, and holdeth the dead as
it were under conquest until the time of the resurrection,
W5
wherein shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
O death, where is thy sting ? O hades, where is thy victory ?
For " 0% these things shall rightly be spoken then," saith
" when
this mortal and corruptible flesh, (about
Irenaeus,
which death is, and which is holden down by a certain
dominion of death), rising up unto life, shall put on in-
corruption and immortality ; for then shall death be truly
overcome, when the flesh that is holden by it shall come
forth out of the dominion thereof." Death, then, as it im-
porteth the separation of the soul from the body, which
is the
proper acception of it, is a thing distinguishable
from hades, as an antecedent from its consequent ; but as
it is the whole state of death, and the domina-
taken for
tion which
hath over the dead, (TWV veKpwv SeGTroTeiav,
it

Basilius Seleuciensis calleth it in his Oration upon Elias),


it is the selfsame thing that hades is, and in that respect,
as we have seen, the words are sometimes indifferently put
the one for the other.
As therefore our Saviour, (that we may apply this now
unto him), after he was fastened and lifted up on the cross,
597
if he had come down from thence, the standers-by in
(as
mocking wise did wish him to do), might be truly said to
have been crucified, but not to have died ; so when he gave
up the ghost and laid down his life, if he had presently
taken it up again, he might truly be said to have died,
but not to have gone to the dead, or to have been in
hades. His remaining under the power of death until the
third day made this good. Whom God did raise up, loosing
the sorrows of death, 598 forasmuch as it was not possible
that he should be holden of it, saith St Peter; and Christ
being raised from the dead, dieth now no more: death

595
1 Cor. xv. 54, 55. ea quae continetur ab ea caro exierit de
596
Haec juste dicentur tune, quando dominio ejus. Irenaeus, lib. v. cap. 13.
mortalis hsec et corruptibilis caro, circa 597 Matt, xxvii. 40
42.
98
quam et mors est, quae et quodam dominio KadoTt OVK r\v SvvaTov
mortis pressa est, in vitam conscendens, avTov VTT' avtov. Acts ii. 24.
99
induerit incorruptelam et immortalitatem. Oa'i/aTos auTou OVK on Kvpttutt.
Tune enim vere erit victa mors, quando Rom. vi. 9.

Z 'J
356 ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

hath no more dominion over him, saith St Paul; implying

thereby, that during the space of time that passed betwixt


his death and his resurrection he was holden by death, and
death had some kind of domination over him. And there-
fore Athanasius, (or whoever else was author of that writing
to Liberius, the Roman Bishop,) having reference unto the
former text, affirmeth that " 600 he raised up that buried"
"
body of his, and presented it to his Father, having freed
it from death, of which it was holden." And Maximus,
or he that collected the Dialogues against the Marcionites
under the name of Origen, out of him, expounding the
other text: "
601
Over whom, then, had death dominion?"
" for the
saith he :
saying that it hath no more dominion,
sheweth that before it had dominion over him." Not that
death could have any dominion over 60i the Lord of life,
further than he himself was pleased to give way unto it:
but as, when death did at the first seize upon him, 6G3 his
life
indeed was taken from the earth, yet m none could
take it from him, but he laid it down of himself; so his
continuing to be death's prisoner for a time was a volun-
tary commitment only, unto which he freely yielded himself
for our sakes, not any yoke of miserable necessity that death
G05
was able to impose upon him. For he had power to lay
down his life,
and he had power to take it again; yet
would he not take again before he had first not laid
it

himself down only upon death's bed, but slept also upon
it, that arising afterward from thence he might become
606
the Jirst-fruits of them that slept. In which respect the
607
Fathers apply unto him that text of the Psalm, I laid
me down and slept,I awaked, for the Lord sustained me,
(Psalm iii.
5) ; and Lactantius that verse of Sibyl,

TO Tatyev, 607
'Eyei/oas eKelvo TT/OOO-J/- Cyprian. Testimon. advers. Judaeos,
fey/ce TU> iraTpi, e\evQepw><ra<i ou e/c/oa- lib. ii. sect. 24 ; Lactant. Institut. lib. iv.
TeiTo QavaTov. Athanas. Rescript, ad cap. 19; Ruffin. in Exposit. Symbol.;

Liberium, Tom. i. p. 397. Augustin. de Civit. Dei, lib. xvii. cap. 18 ;


Cyrillus, cujus in hunc locum (in Catena
601
Tu/os ovv eKvpievarev o Oai/aros ;
TO
yap eiTrelVj Ou/c STL itvpieuei, eoei^ev OTL MS. Nicetae Serronii) verba sunt ista:
TrpoTepov eKvpievcrev. Origen. Dialog. /JLGV yttp CTTt TOV (TTCtVpOV, TO
III. T(p iraTepi Trapade/uievos, Kai
602 603
Acts iii. 15. Acts viii. 33. uirvov Tpiii/mepov ev TO) Tci(pa>
04 605
John x. 18. Ibid. cLs. dvearTtj Se TOV TraTepos O.VTOU
506 Cor. xv. 20. TUU
1 e/c Ttav 7rv\lav QO.VO.TOV oxJ/co<rai'Tos.
VIII. ] OK MM HI'S I'ATUl'M.

Km tiavaTou /uoipav T\eaci T^LTOV tjjmap


" The term of death he shall finish
When he hath slept unto the third day."

His dying, or his burying at the farthest, is that which


here is answerable unto his lying down ; but his
Tacf>rj
608
or as Dionysius calleth it, his
Tpi^Hiepo^j Tptrj/uitpovvKTos,
three days' burial, and his continuing for that time in. the
state of death, is that which answereth unto his sleeping,
or being in hades. And therefore the Fathers of the fourth
Council of Toledo, declaring how in baptism " 610 the death
and resurrection of Christ is signified, 1 ' do both affirm, that
" the dipping in the water is as it were a descension into
hell, and the rising out of the water again a resurrection ;"
and add likewise out of Gregory, with whom many other
611
doctors do herein agree, that 612 the " threefold dipping"
is used to the " three
signify burial."
days' Which differeth
as much from the simple burial, or putting into the earth,
as /ueTcHKianos doth from /meToiKia, the transportation or
leading into captivity from the detaining in bondage, the
committing of one to prison from the holding of him there,,
and the sowing of the seed from the remaining of it in
ground.
And thus have I unfolded at large the general acceptions
of the word hades and infer i, and so the ecclesiastical use
of the word hell answering thereunto ; which being severally
applied to the point of our Saviour's descent, make up
these three propositions, that by the universal consent of
Christians are acknowledged to be of undoubted verity :

His dead body, though free from corruption, yet did descend

608
Dionys. Ecclesiast.Hierarch.cap.2. Leo i. Epist. iv. cap. 3 ; Paschasius dc
**
To 6e virvtaata, T^S /ca-ra/cXio-eoj? Spiritu Sanct. lib. ii. cap. 5; Johan.
en-irao-is Euthym. in Psal. iv. 9.
eo-rt'j/.
j
Damascen. Orthodox. Fid. lib. iv. cap.
610 Et ne 10 ; Germanus in Rer. Ecclesiast. Theo-
cuiquam sit dubium hu-
forte \

jus simpli mysterium sacramenti, videat in ria; Walafrid. Strab. de Reb. Eccle-
eo mortem et resurrection em Christi signi- siast. cap. 26; Theophylact. in Johan.
ficari. Nam in aquis mersio quasi in in- i

cap. iii.

i'ernum descensio est ab aquis 612


; et rursus j
Nos autem quod tertio mergimus,
emersio resurrectio est. Concil. Toletan. triduanaesepulturaesacramentasignamus ;
iv. cap. 5 (al. 6). ut dum tertio infans ab aquis educitur,
Dionys. ut supra ; Cyril, vel Johan. resurrectio triduani temporis exprimatur.
Hierosolymitan. Cateches. 11. Mystago- '

Concil. Toletan. ex (Jrc;mrio, lib. i. Re-


gie.; Pctrus rhrysologus, Serin, cxiii.; gistri, Epist. xn.
358 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

into the place of


corruption, as other bodies do. His soul,
being separated from his body, departed hence into the
other world, as all other men's souls in that case use to
do. He went unto the dead and remained for a time in
the state of death, as other dead men do. There remaineth
now the vulgar acception of the word hell, whereby it is
taken for the place of torment prepared for the devil and
his angels; and touching this also all Christians do agree
thus far, that Christ did descend thither, at leastwise in
a virtual manner, as God " 613 is said to descend when he
doth any thing upon earth, which being wonderfully done
beyond the usual course of nature, may in some sort shew
" 614 vouchsafeth to
his presence," or when he otherwise
have care of human frailty." Thus when Christ's " 615 flesh
was in tomb, his power did work from heaven," saith
the
St Ambrose. Which agreeth with that which was before
cited out of the Armenians' confession " 616
According to :

his body, which was dead, he descended into the grave ;


but according to his DIVINITY, which did live, he overcame
hell in the meantime ;" and with that which was cited out
of Philo Carpathius, upon Cantic. v. 2, / sleep, but my
heart waketh, " 617 in the grave spoiling hell ;" for which
in the Latin collections that go under his name, we read
thus: " 618 / sleep, to wit on the cross, and my heart
waketh, when my DIVINITY spoiled hell, and brought rich
spoils from the triumph of everlasting death overcome and
the devil's power overthrown." The author of the imperfect
work upon Matthew attributeth this to the divinity, not
clothed with any part of the humanity, but naked, as he
" 619 feared him," saith he,
speaketh. Seeing the devils
613
Descendere dicitur, cum aliquid meum vigilat, cum divinitas Tartara spo-
facit in terra, quod praeter usitatum na- liavit, et opima spolia retulit de triumpho
turae cursum mirabiliter factum praesen- superatse mortis aeternae atque dejectse
tiam quodammodo ejus ostendat. Au- diabolicae potestatis. Philo Carpath. in
gustin. de Civit. Dei, lib. xvi. cap. 5. Cantic. v.
614 619 in corpore constitutum timu-
Descendere dicitur
Deus, quando Quern
curam humanae fragilitatis habere digna- erunt, dicentes, Quid nobis et tibi, Jesu
tur. Aug. Serm. LXX. de Tempore. fili Dei excelsi ? venisti ante tempus tor-

quere nos ? quomodo nudam ipsam divi-


615
Erat caro ejus in monumento, sed
virtus ejus operabatur e coelo. Ambros. nitatem contra se descendentem poterunt
de Incarnat. cap. 5. sustinere ? Ecce post tres dies mortis
616 ab inferis, quasi victor de
Supr. p. 307- suae revertetur
617
Supf. p. 302. bello. Op. Imperf. in Matth. Homil.
618
Ego dormio, in cruce scilicet, et cor xxxv. Tom. ii. Chrysost.
VIII.]
OF LIMBUS PATHUM. 359

" while he was in the body, saying, What have we to do


with Jesus the Son of the High God? art thou
thee,
come to torment us before our time? how shall they be
able to endure his NAKED DIVINITY descending against
them ? Behold, after three days of his death he shall
return from hell, as a conqueror from the war."
This conquest others do attribute to his cross, others
to his death, others to his burial, others to the real descent
of his soul into the of the damned, others to his resur-
place
rection; and extend the effect thereof, not only to the deli-

very of the Fathers of the Old Testament, but also to the


freeing of our souls from hell. From whence how men may
be said to have been delivered who never were there, St
" Thou sayest
620
Augustine declareth by these similitudes :

rightly to the physician, Thou hast freed me from this


sickness, not in which thou wast, but in which thou wast
like to be. Somebody elsehaving a troublesome business,
was to be cast into prison ; there cometh another and
defendeth him. What saith he when he giveth thanks ?
Thou hast delivered me from prison. A
debtor was in
danger to be hanged ; the debt is
paid for him ; he is

said to be freed from hanging. In all these things they


were not; but because such were their deserts that unless
they had been holpen there they would have been, they
say rightly that they were freed thence, whither by those
11
that freed them they were not suffered to be brought.
That Christ destroyed the power of hell, 621 spoiled princi-
palities and powers, and made a shew of them openly,
triumphing over them, is acknowledged by all Christians.
Neither is there any who will refuse to subscribe unto that
which Proclus delivered in his sermon before Nestorius,
then Bishop of Constantinople, inserted into the acts of
the Council of Ephesus " 622 He was shut in the
:
up grave
620 Recte dicis medico, Liberasti me ab tum esset, ibi essent ; inde se recte dicunt

iegritudine; non in qua jam eras, sed in liberari, quo per liberatores suos non sunt
qua futurus eras. Nescio quis habens permissi perduci. August, in Psal. LXXXV.
621
causam molestam, mittendus erat in car- Ephes. ii. 15.
622 Kal TOV ov-
'Ei/ Tct(/>a> Kcrre/cXeieTOj
cerem; venit alius, defendit eum. Gratias
agens, quid dicit ? Eruisti animam meam pavov efceTeivev taael SeppiV ev i/e/c/oolv
decarcere. Suspendendus erat debitor : so- e\oyi^TO, Kai TOV <i'o>/i> ecrK'uXcuez/. Pro-
lutum est pro eo ; liberatus dicitur de sus- cli. Cyziceni Episc. Homil. de Nativit.
pendio. In his omnibus non erant : sed quia Domin. in Act. Concil. Ephes. part. i.
falibus meritis agebantur, ut nisi subven- cap. i. edit. Rom.
360 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

who stretched out the heavens like a skin ; he was reckoned


among the dead and spoiled hell;" and that which St Cyril
and the Synod of Alexandria wrote unto the same Nestorius
concerning the confession of their faith, approved not only
623
by the third general Council held at Ephesus, but also

by the
624
fourth at Chalcedon, and the 625 fifth at Constan-
" 626
To
end that by his unspeakable power
the
tinople :

treading down death own, as the first and principal,


in his

flesh, he might become the firstborn from the dead, and


the firstfruits of those that slept ; and that he might make
a way to man^s nature for the turning back again unto

incorruption ; by the grace of God he tasted death for all


men, and revived the third day, spoiling hell :" all, I say,
do agree that Christ spoiled, or, as they were wont to
speak, harrowed hell; whether you take hell for that which
keepeth the soul separated from the body, or that which
separateth soul and body both from the blessed presence of
him who is our true life ; the one whereof our Saviour hath
conquered by bringing in the resurrection of the body, the
other he hath abolished by procuring for us life everlasting.

Touching the manner and the means whereby hell was


thus spoiled, is all the disagreement the manner, whether :

our Lord did deliver his people from hell by way of pre-
vention, in saving them from coming thither, or by way
of subvention, in helping those out whom at the time of
his death he found there the means, whether this were:

done by his divinity, or his humanity, or both ; whether


by the virtue of his sufferings, death, burial, and resur-
rection, or by the real descending of his soul into the place
wherein men^s souls were kept imprisoned. That he de-
scended not into the hell of the damned by the essence of
his soul, or locally, but virtually only, by extending the
effect of his power thither, is the common doctrine of
627
Thomas Aquinas and the rest of the school. Cardinal

623
Act. Concil. Ephes. part. i. cap.
xxvi. edit. Rom. TC Ty TOV dvQptairov (piHret TIJI/ eis dfpQitp-
624
Concil. Chalced. Act. v. cr'iav dvaopofitjv, yapiTi Qeov virep travTO.'s
625 6e dve(3ito
Quint. Synod. Constantinop. Col- eyeixraTo QdvaTOV, T/otij^ie/oos

lat. vi. (T/cuXeu eras TOV aotjv. Synod. Alexandrin.


6
"Iva yap appiJTio fiwdfiet 7raTrj<ras Epist. ad Nestor.
* 27
TOV OdvaTov, ws ev ye ctj TrptaTy TTJ lota Thorn, in Sum. part. in. Quaesk
trapKi, yevijTai TT/OWTOTOKOS e/c LII. Art. 2.
VIII,]
OF L1MBUS PATRUM.

6as
Bellarmine at first held
probable that Christ's
it to be
soul did descend only by his effects, but by
thither, not
his real presence also; but afterwards,
" '*"
having considered
better of the matter, he resolved that the opinion of Thomas
and the other schoolmen was to be followed." The same
Suarez, who concerning this whole
6::
is the judgment of
Article of Christ's descent into hell doth thus deliver
his mind :
" 631
If by an article of faith we understand a
truth which all the faithful are bound explicitly to know
and believe, so I do not think it
necessary to reckon this
the articles of faith, because it is not a matter alto-
among
gether so necessary for all men, and because that for this

reason, peradventure, it is omitted in the Nicene Creed ;


the knowledge of which Creed seemeth to be sufficient for

fulfillingthe precept of faith. Lastly, for this cause, per-


adventure, Augustine and other of the Fathers expounding
the Creed, do not unfold this mystery unto the people."
And to speak the truth, it is a matter above the reach of
the common
people to enter into the discussion of the full
meaning of this point of the descension into hell ; the deter-
mination whereof dependeth upon the knowledge of the
learned tongues and other sciences that come not within
the compass of their understanding ; some experiment whereof

they may observe in this, that whereas in the other questions


here handled they might find themselves able in some rea-
sonable sort to follow me; here they leave me, I doubt,
and let me walk without their company.
It having here likewise been further manifested, what
different opinions have been entertained by the ancient doc-
tors of the Church concerning the determinate place wherein
our Saviour's soul did remain during the time of the sepa-
ration of it from his body, I leave it to be considered by

628
Bellarm. de Christo, lib. iv. cap. ac credere teneantur, sic non existimo
16. necessarium hunc computare inter articu-
Re melius considerata, sequendam
29
los fidei; quia non est res admodum
esse existimo sententiam S. Thomae, qua? necessaria singulis hominibus, et quia
est aliorum scholasticorum in Sent. in. ob hanc fortasse causam in symbolo Ni-
Dist. xxn. Id. in Recognitione Ope- ceno omittitur; cujus symboli cognitio
rum. videtur esse sufficiens ad praeceptum fidei
C3
Suarez.Tom. n. in part. in. Thorn. implendum. Denique propterea forte

Disput. XLIII. sect. 4. Augustinus et alii patres in principio ci-


31
Si nomine articuli intelligamus ve- cxponcntcs symbolum, non explicant
tati,
ritalem quam omncs h'dclcs explicitcscirc populo hoc mystcrium. Id. ibid. sect. '2.
362 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

the whether any such controverted matter may


learned,
be " 632 rule of faith
fitly brought in to expound the by,"
which being " common both to the great and the small
ones in the Church," must contain such verities only as are
generally agreed upon by the common consent of all true
Christians ; and if the words of the Article of Christ's going
to may well bear such a general meaning as
hades or hell
this,that he went to the dead, and continued in the state
of death until the time of his resurrection, it would be
thought upon, whether such a truth as this, which findeth
universal acceptance among all Christians, may not safely
pass for an Article of our Creed, and the particular limit-
ation of the place unto which our Saviour's soul went,
whether to the place of bliss, or to the place of torment,
or to both, be left, as a number of other theological points
are, unto further disputation. In the articles of our faith
common agreement must be required, which we are sure
is more be found in the general than in the parti-
likely to
cular. And this is the only reason which moved me to
enlarge myself so much in the declaration of the general
acceptions of the word hades, and the application of them to
our Saviour's descent spoken of in the Creed. Wherein if
the zeal which I bear to the peace of the Church, and the set-
tlement of unity among brethren, hath carried me too far,
I entreat the reader to pardon me; and so ceasing to be
further troublesome unto him in the prosecution of this
intricate argument, I pass to the next question

OF PRAYER TO SAINTS.

THAT one question of St Paul, Rom. x. 14, How shall


they call upon him in whom they have not believed ? among
such as lust not to be contentious will quickly an end put
unto this question. For ifnone can be invocated but such
as must be believed in, and nohe must be believed in but

32
Regulam fidei pusillis magnisque
j
nent. Augustin. Epist. LVII. ad Dar-
communem in ecclesia perseveranter tc- j
danum.
IX.]
OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. 363

God alone, every one may easily discern what conclusion


will follow
thereupon. Again, all Christians have been
taught that no part of divine worship is to be communi-
cated unto any creature for it is written, Thou shalt :
!

worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
But prayer is such a principal part of this service, that it
2
is
put for the whole; and the public place of
usually
God's worship hath from hence given it the denomination
of 3 the house of prayer. Furthermore, he that heareth
our prayers must be able to search the secrets of our hearts,
and discern the inward disposition of our souls. For the
pouring out of good words, and the offering up of external
sighs and tears, are but the carcase only of a true prayer ;
the life thereof consisteth in the 4 pouring out of the very
5
soul itself, and the sending up of those secret groans of
the spirit which cannot be uttered. But *he that searcheth
the hearts, and only he, knoweth what is the mind of the

Spirit; he ''heareth in heaven his dwelling-place, and


giveth to every man according to his ways, whose heart
he knoweth for he, even he ONLY, knoweth the hearts of
;

all the children of men, as Solomon teacheth us in the

prayer which he made at the dedication of the temple,


whereunto we may add that golden sentence of his father
David for a conclusion 8 thou that hearest prayer, unto :

thee shall all Jlesh come.


If it be further here objected by us, that we find neither
precept nor example of any of the Fathers of the Old Testa-
ment whereby this kind of praying to the souls of the saints
departed may be warranted, Cardinal Bellarmine will give
us a reason for it: " 9 For therefore,"" saith he, " the spirits
of the patriarchs and the prophets, before the coming of
Christ, were neither so worshipped nor invocated as we
do now worship and invocate the apostles and martyrs,
1
Matth. iv. 10. 7 1 Kings viii. 39 2 Chron. vi. 30.
;

2 8
Jerem. x. 25 ; Joel ii. 32 ; Acts ix. Psalm LXV. 2.
14; 1 Cor. i. 2. Sic
apud Optatum, lib.
9 Nam idcirco ante Christi adventum
iii. Ut negaretur Chris-
contr. Donatist. non ita colebantur neque invocabantur
tus et Jdola rogarentur. Item, Testamen- spiritus patriarcharum et prophetarum.
tum divinum legimus pariter; unum quemadmodum nunc apostolos et mar-
Deum rogamus. tyres colimus et invocamus, quod illi ad-
3
Isaiah LVI. 7; Matth. xxi. 13. huc inl'emi carceribus clausi detinebantur.
4
Psalm Lxii. 8 ;
1 Sam. i. 13, 15. Bellarm. fin. Praefat. in Cron trovers, dc
8
Rom. viii. 26. 6
Rom. viii. 27- Ecclesia triumphante, in Ord. Disputat.
364 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

because that were detained as yet shut


they up in the
prisons of hell." But if this reason of his be grounded
upon
a false foundation, as we have already shewed it be, and the
contrary supposition be most true, that the spirits of the
patriarchs and prophets were not thus shut up in the prisons
of hell, then have we four thousand years'
prescription left
unto us to oppose against this innovation. go further yet, We
and urge against them, that in the New Testament itself
we can descry no footsteps of this new kind of invocation,
more than we did in the Scriptures of the Old Testament.
For this Salmeron doth tell us, that " 10 the Scriptures which
were made and published in the primitive Church ought
to found and explain Christ, who, by the tacit suggestion
of the Spirit, did bring the saints with him and that it ;

would have been a hard matter to enjoin this to the Jews,


and to the Gentiles an occasion would be given thereby to
think that many gods were put upon them instead of the
multitude of the gods whom they had forsaken." So this
new worship, fetcheth its original neither from
you see,
the Scriptures of the Old nor of the New Testament, but
from I know not what " tacit suggestion," which smelt so
strongly of idolatry, that at first it was not safe to acquaint
either the Jews or the Gentiles therewith. But if any such
sweet tradition as this were at first delivered unto the
Church by Christ and his Apostles, we demand further
how it should come to pass, that for the space of 360 years
together after the birth of our Saviour we can find mention
nowhere of any such thing? For howsoever our Challenger
" that
giveth it out, prayer to saints was of great account"
amongst the Fathers of the primitive Church for the first
400 years after Christ, yet for nine parts of that time, I
dare be bold to say, that he is not able to produce as much
as one true testimony out of any Father, whereby it may

appear that any account at all was made of it; and for
the tithe, too, he shall find perhaps, before we have done,
that he is not like to carry it away so clearly as he weeneth.

10 et occasio daretur
Quia scripturas conditas et publicatas gentibus put-nidi sibi
in primitiva ecclesia oportebat Christum exhibitos multos Deos pro multitudine
fundare et explicare, qui per tacitam sug- deorum quos relinquebant. Alphons.
gestionem Spiritus sanctos secum adduce- Salmer. in 1 Tim. ii. Di.sput. viiu
bat ; et durum esset id Judaeis praccipere,
IX.]
01 PRAYER TO SAINTS. 365

Whether those pray for us, is not the-


blessed spirits

question here, but whether we are


to pray unto them. That
God only is to be prayed unto, is the doctrine that was once
delivered unto the saints, for which we so earnestly contend ;
the saints praying for us doth no way cross this, (for to
whom should the saints pray but to the " King of saints?)
their being prayed unto is the only stumblingblock that
liethin this way. And therefore in those first times the
former of these was admitted by some as a matter of pro-
bability, but the latter no way yielded unto, as being
derogatory to the privilege of the Deity. Origen may be
a witness of both, who touching the former writeth in this
sort: "
do think thus, that all those Fathers who are
12
I
this life before us do fight with us and assist us
departed
with their prayers; for so have I heard one of the elder
masters saying:" and in another place, " Moreover, if the
13

saints that have left the body and be with Christ, do any

thing and labour for us in like manner as the angels do,


who are employed in the ministry of our salvation, let
this also remain among the hidden things of God and the

mysteries that are not to be committed unto writing." But


because he thought that the angels and saints prayed for
us, did he therefore hold it needful that we should direct
our prayers unto them ? Hear, I pray you, his own answer,
in his eighth book against Celsus the philosopher: " We
14

must endeavour to please God alone, who is above all


things,

11
Rev. xv. 3. CTTL TTO.OIV eei//uei/iecr6ai 9eoj/, Ka.Ta.voi)-
12 TW
Ego quod omnes illi qui
sic arbitror, craTio, OTI aivirep KivovftetHp (TW/ULUTI
dormierunt ante nos patres, pugnent no- a'/coXov6eT ; TT/S <r/aa UVTOV
/CII/TJO-IS, TOV

biscum et adjuvent nos orationibus suis. avTov TpoTrov TW e^ev/nevi'^eo'Qai TOV CTTI
Ita namque etiam quendam de senioribus iraffL Qeov CITCTOI eu/ievets e-^eiv TOWS
magistris audivi dicentem. Origen. in fueivov TTavras 0/Xous dyyeXous, icot
Jos. Homil. xvi. \|^uxs Kai TTveu/jiaTa' avvaiaQovTai yap
13
Jam etiam extra corpus positi
vero si Ttav d%itav TOV Trapd TOV Qeov ev/Jievi<T/j.ov'

sancti, cum
Christo sunt, agunt ali-
qui Kal ou fj.6vov KCU avTol cv/j.evflv TOIS ct^iots
quid, et laborant pro nobis ad similitudi- yivovTcti, aXXa /cat a-vfJurpaTTOva-i TO??
nem angelorum, qui salutis nostrae mini- /3ouXo/iej/oisTOV eirl irdffi Oeov dcpaireveiv,
steria procurant, &c. habeatur hoc quoque Kal efcev/jLevifyvTai, /cat avvevyovTai, /cat
inter occulta Uei nee chartis committenda crvva^iovariv WCTTC ToX/nav tj^ias Xe'yeti/,
rr.ysteria. Id. lib. ii. in Epist. ad Roman, OTI dvdpaairois, fjiCTa irpoaipeo-ews irpon-

cap. ii.

4
"Eva ovv TOV CTTI Traort Qeov 1} plv ew, fivpai o<rat
KeVfJLeVl<TTOV, KCtl TOVTOV t'XeO) 6/CTCOJ/j dvvd/jieis lepai. Origen. contr. Cels. lib.

e^evfjLevt^ofjievov evaefieia KOI Trdcry dpeTtj' viii. p. 432, 433.


ci Sc Kai aXXovs Tii/as /SouXexat /uieTa TOV
366 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [cHAP.

and labour to have him propitious unto us, procuring his


goodwill with godliness and all kind of virtue. And if
Celsus will yet have us to procure the goodwill of any
others after him that is God all, let him consider,
over
that as when the body is moved, the motion of the shadow
thereof doth follow it, so in like manner having God
favourable unto us who is over all, it followeth that we
shallhave all his friends, both angels and souls and spirits,
loving unto us, For they have a fellow-feeling with them
that are thought worthy to find favour from God. Neither
are they only favourable unto such as be thus worthy ; but

they work with them also that are willing to do service


unto him who is God over all, and are friendly to them,
and pray with them, and entreat with them. So as we
may be bold to say, that when men, which with resolution
propose unto themselves the best things, do pray unto God,
many thousands of the sacred powers pray together with
them UNSPOKEN to.""
Celsus had said of the angels, " 15 That they belong
to God, and in that respect we are to put our trust in them,
and make oblations to them according to the laws, and pray
unto them, that they may be favourable to us." To this
answereth in this manner: " 16 with Celsus's
Origen Away
counsel, saying that we must pray to angels ; and let us

not so much
as afford any little audience to it. For we
must pray him alone who is God over all and we must
to ;

pray to the Word of God, his only begotten and the first-
born of all creatures, and we must entreat him that he
as High Priest would present our prayer, when it is come
to him, unto his God and our God, and unto his Father
and the Father of them that frame their life according to
the word of God." And whereas Celsus had further said,
that we "
17
must offer firstfruits" unto angels, " and prayers
15
"On Kal ol Saifioves elai TOV Qeov, KTiffetus Xoyu) 0eou,
Kal Std TOVTO iricTTevTeov ecTTiv au-roT?, Kal dfcitareov avTov, a>? dp\iepea, TI}V CTT'
Kal Ka\\tptjTeov /cara vo/nous, Kal irpocr- avrov (pQdcraffav t;/iaif ew^j/ dva<pepeiv
evKTeov 'Lv (Sal- Cels. ibid, eirl TOV Qeov avTov Kal Qeov tj^ucui', Kal
evfjievels

p. 406. TraTepa avTov Kal TraTepa T<UV (3iovvTtav


16
"Atraye 5tj TI}V TOV KeXo-ou (TV/JL^OV-
KaTa TOV \6yov TOV Qeou. Origen.
ibid.
Xji/,Xeyoi/Tos irpotrevKTeov elvat daifioffi,
17
^al ovoe Kara TO TTOGOV aKov&Teov avTijs. 'Airapxas Kal ev^d? diroooTeov, ta>
ap irpocrevKTeov TU> eiri Tracrt Oew, dv ^w/txev, cos av fpiXavBpwircav avTtav
Trpoa-evKTcov ye TO> /movoyevel Kal Cels. ibid. p. 411.
OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. 367

as long as we live, that we may find them propitious unto


us;" answer is returned by Origen in the name of the
Christians, that they held it rather fit to offer " firstfruits"
unto him which said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the
herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after
his kind. 18
And " to whom we give the firstfruits," saith
" to him also do we send our prayers, having a great
he,
High Priest that is entered into the heavens, Jesus the

Son of God : and we hold fast this confession while we live,

having God
favourable unto us, and his only begotten Son
Jesus being manifested among us ; but if we have a desire
unto a multitude whom we would willingly have to be
favourable unto us, we learn that thousand thousands stand
by him, and millions of millions minister unto him who :

beholding them that imitate their piety towards God as if


they were their kinsfolks and friends, help forward their sal-
vation upon God and pray sincerely ; appearing also
who call
and thinking that they ought to do service to them ; and
as it were upon one watchword, to set forth for the benefit
and salvation of them that pray to God, unto whom they
themselves also pray. For they are all ministering spirits,
sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salva-
tion" Thus far Origen, in his eighth book against Celsus ;
to which for a conclusion we will add that
place of the fifth
book: " 19 A11 prayers, and supplications, and intercessions,

/,
TOV- /cat yap iraWes el<rt XeiTOVpyiKa irvev-
Tto KOI Tcts eu^as ai/aire/i-Tro/iei/, e^oi/Tes fiaTa, eis SiaKOviav aVoo-TtXXo/xei/a Sia
dp\Lepea fieyav, SieXrjXvQoTa TOUS ovpa- TOUS fieXXovras /cXtj/ooi/o/uetj/ <r<0Ti]aiav.
voos, 'Iqarovv TOV viov TOV Qeov" /cat /c/oa- Origen. ibid. p. 411, 412.
19
TOV/JLCV -7-779 o/zoXoyiae ea>s dv ^W/JLCV, <pi- Hd<rav fiev yap der)<riv /cat Trpoarev-
XavQpojTrov TvyyavovTes TOV Qeov, /cat X)V Kal evTfv^iv /cat fv\api(TTiav dva-
TOV /Jiovoyevovs CLVTOV 'Itj(rou ev rj/uuv </>a- TrefjiTTTfov Tip eirt Trao't Geai Sid TOV etrt

vepovfJLevov. Et Se /cat TrXrjdos Tro6ov/.iev irdvTtav dyyeXtav dp\iepf(a<:, enfyvypv Xo-


tav <t>i\avQpu>TT(av Tvyydveiv 6eXo/iev, yov /cat Qeov, &C. 'AyyeXovs ydp /caXe-
fiavQa.vofi.ev OTL -^iXiai. \tXidSey -rra/oet- <ratj /ur} ai/aXa/3di/Tas TI}V virtp dvQpwTrow
<TTt]Kicrav avTw, /cat /uu/otat [ivpiddes eXet- Trepl avTwv 67rt<rTr}fiiji/, ou/c evXoyov. "Ii/a

Tovpyovv avTia' atVij/es 0)5 o-uyyevets /cat tie /cat /ca0' VTroQeariv TJ trepl avTwv eirt-

<lXoUS XOUS /JLl[JLOV[J.l>OVS jj 6ai/ia<rios TIS outra


avTwv cuore/Seiai/ 6/oaii/Tes, Ory, a'vTij tj eirto-Ttj/itj,
avTuiv TTJ rrtoTripia TWV craara TTJV <pv<Tiv avTtov, /cat c<^)' ols e/ca-
TOV Btoj/ /cat -yj/tjattDS euxo/xeVtov, e-rri- OTOI TeTayfJifvoi, OVK eaeret aXXw Qappelv
<t>a.iv6/uLevoi /cat oioynei/ot aurois Setv VTTO.- euxeorOat, 17 TW
Trpos 7ra'i/Ta 5ia/o/ceT (fort.
Koveiv, /cat ootrirep e cvos <rt;v0>j/xaTos 5ta/o/couj/Tt) eirt iraat 9ew 5ia TOV fftoTfj-
ii/ eir' cvepyetria Kal o-WTtjpta TU>V po? i')fjLU)i> vlov TOV Qeov. Id. lib. v. p.
Qeai, to /cat avToi ev\ovTat. 239.
368 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE.

and thanksgivings, are to be sent up unto God, the Lord


of all, by the High Priest, who is above all angels, being
the living Word and God. For to call upon angels, we
not comprehending the knowledge of them, which is above
the reach of man, not agreeable to reason.
is And if by
supposition it were granted that the knowledge of them,
which is wonderful and secret, might be comprehended ; this
very knowledge, declaring their nature unto us and the
charge over which every one of them is set, would not
permit us to presume to pray unto any other but unto God,
the Lord over all, who is abundantly sufficient for all, by
our Saviour the Son of God."
Tertullian and Cyprian, in the books which they pur-

posely wrote concerning prayer, deliver no other doctrine,


but teach us to regulate all our prayers according unta
that perfect pattern prescribed by our great Master, wherein
we are required to direct our petitions unto Our Father
which is in Matt. vi. Luke xi. 2.
" 20
These
heaven. 9,

things," saith Tertullian, in his Apology for the Christians


of his time, " I may not pray for from any other but from
him of whom I know I shall obtain them ; because both
it is he who
alone able to give, and
is whom I am he unto
it
appertaineth to obtain that which is
requested, being his
servant who observe him alone, who for his religion am
killed, who offer unto him a rich and great sacrifice which
he himself hath commanded, prayer proceeding from a chaste
body, from an innocent soul, from a holy spirit;" where
he accounteth prayer to be the chief sacrifice wherewith
God is worshipped, agreeably to that which Clemens Alex-
andrinus wrote at the same time: " 21 We do not without
cause honour God by prayer, and with righteousness send
up this best and holiest sacrifice."
And therefore where the brethren of the chnrch of
Smyrna, relating the martyrdom of Polycarpus their bishop,

20 non possum, quam de spiritu sancto profectam. Tertul.


Haec ab alio orare centi,
a quo me scio consecuturum ; quoniam et Apologetic, cap. 30.
ipse est qui solus praestat, et ego sum cui 21
Ou/c aTreiKorias tj/xels Si CW^T/S Tt/ioj-
impetrare debetur, famulus ejus qui eum TOV Qeov, Kai TavTt}V TY\V Qvtriav
yuev
solum observo, qui propter disciplinam
dpitrTfjv Kai ayitoTctTi)!/ JUCTCC SiKatotrvvrif
ejus occidor, qui ei offero opimam et ma- dvaire/JLTrofj.ev. Clem. Alexandr. Stromat.
jorem hostiam, quam ipse mandavit, ora- lib. vii.
tionem de came pudica, de anima inno-
IX.]
OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. 369

whereof they were eye-witnesses, some 70 years after the


decease of St John, who had encouraged them by a letter
*z
taken from their Saviour's own mouth, to continue
faithful
unto the death where these, I say, do constantly profess
;

that they " ^can never be induced either to forsake Christ,


who suffered for the salvation of the whole world of the
saved, (or, world), or to WORSHIP
the saved of the whole
ANY OTHER," of that writing of theirs,
the Latin edition
which was wont to be publicly read in these churches of the
manner: " 24
We
West, doth express their meaning in this
Christians can never leave Christ, who did vouchsafe to suffer
so great things for our sins, nor impart the supplication of
PRAYER UNTO ANY OTHER." Then, to shew the difference
of this high worship proper to the Master from the honour
of love and imitation due unto his best servants, it presently
followeth in that golden epistle: " 25 Him, being the Son of
God, we do adore ; but the martyrs, as the disciples and
followers of the Lord, we love worthily for their exceeding
great affection toward their own King and Master, of whom
we wish that we may be partners and disciples." Hereunto
may be added the direction given unto virgins in the Epistle
" 26 Ye
of Ignatius to the Philadelphians virgins, have Christ :

alone before your eyes, and his Father in your prayers,

being enlightened by the Spirit." For explication whereof


that may be taken, which we read in the exposition of the
faith attributed unto St Gregory of Neocoesarea: "^Who-
soever rightly prayeth unto God, prayeth by the Son; and
whosoever cometh as he ought to do, cometh by Christ and ;

to the Son he cannot come without the Holy Ghost."

22
Rev. ii. 10. Tas TOV Kvpiov /cat /ui/tujra's,
23
OuTe TOV \piffTov TTOTC KaTa\LTTfiv dittos veKa evvotas dwirepfiXriTov TT;?
ouvrjo-o/weOa, TOV uTre/o TJJs TOU iravTOS eis TOI/ i5toj; (3acri\ea /cat ^t^aV/caXoi/* oil/

KocrfJLOV Ttiiv Gia^ofievwv <ra)Tr//5tas iraQov- yevoiTo Kal //ias cruy/coti/wi/ous T6 /cat

Ta, ovTf eTepov TLVO. ffc/3eij/. Eccles. yevevQai. Euseb. ut supra.


26
Smyni. apud Euseb. Hist. lib. iv. Keep. ie. At irapQevoi, povov TOV XpivTov irpo
24
Nunquam Christum relinquere pos- feTe, /cal TOV avTov iraTepa.
sumus Christiani, qui pro peccatis nostris ev Tats euxis, <arrtojuei/at UTTO TOV
pati tanta dignatus est; neque alteri cui- Ignat. Epist. vj.
quam precem orationis impendere. Ex 27
Qui recte invocat Deum, per Filium
Passionario Ms. vu. Kalend. Februar. invocat, et qui proprie accedit, per Chris-
in Bibliotheca Ecclesiae Sarisburiensis, et tum accedit; accedere autem ad Filium
D. Roberti Cottoni. non potest sine Spiritu sancto. Gregor.
!5
TOI/TOV fjLfv ydp viov OVTO. TOV Qeov Neocaesar. in 'E/c6e'<ret T//S

irpoarKwovfiev' TOI/S 3e fidpTvpav, cos /uaStj- ,


a Fr. Turriano convers.
AA
370 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

Neither is it to be passed over, that one of the special


arguments whereby the writers of this time do prove our
Saviour Christ to be truly God, is taken from our praying
unto him, and his accepting of our petitions. ^If Christ
be only man," saith Novatianus, " how is he present being
called upon every where, seeing this is not the nature of
man, but of God, that he can be present at every place?
If Christ be only man, why is a man called upon in our

prayers as a mediator, seeing the invocation of a man is


judged of no force to yield salvation ? If Christ be only
man, why is their hope reposed in him, seeing hope in
man is said to be cursed ?" So is it noted by Origen, that
29
St Paul, in the beginning of the former
Epistle to the
Corinthians, where he saith, With all that in every place
call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs
and ours, Cor. i. doth " Jesus
(l 2,) thereby pronounce
Christ, whose name iscalled upon, to be God. And if to
call upon the name of the Lord," saith he, " and to adore
God, be one and the selfsame thing, as Christ is called
upon, so is he to be adored; and as we do offer to God
the Father first of all prayers, (l Tim. ii. 1,) so must we
also to the Lord Jesus Christ; and as we do offer suppli-
cations to the Father, so do we offer supplications also to
the Son; and as we do offer thanksgivings to God, so do
we thanksgivings to our Saviour."
offer
In like manner Athanasius, disputing against the Arians,
by that prayer which the Apostle maketh, 1 Thess. iii. 11,
God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ,
direct our way unto you, doth prove the unity of the Father

28
homo tantummodo Christus, quo-
Si eum, cujus nomen invocatur, Deum Je-
modo adest ubique invocatus, cum haec sum Christum esse pronunciat. Si ergo
hominis natura non sit, sed Dei, ut adesse et Enos et Moses et Aaron et Samuel in-

omni loco possit ? Si homo tantummodo vocabant Dominum, et ipse exaudiebat


Christus, cur homo in orationibus media- eos, sine dubio Christum Jesum Domi-
tor invocatur, cum invocatio hominis ad num invocabant; et si invocare Domini
praestandam salutem inefficax judicetur ?
nomen et adorare Deum unum atque idem
Si homo tantummodo Christus, cur spes est, sicut invocatur Christus et adorandus
in ilium ponitur, cum spes in homine est Christus ; et sicut offerimus Deo Patri
maledicta referatur ? Novatian. de Tri- primo omnium orationes, ita et Domino
nitat. cap. 14. Jesu Christo ; et sicut offerimus postula-
29
Sed et in principio epistolae quam ad tiones Patri, ita offerimus postulationes et
Corinthios scribit, ubi dicit, Cum omni- Filio; et sicut offerimus gratiarum actio-
bus qui invocant nomen Domini Jesu nes Deo, ita gratias offerimus Salvatori.
Christi in omni loco, ipsorum et nostro, Origen. lib. viii. in Epist. ad Roman, cap. x.
IX.]
OK PKAVKK TO SAINTS. 371

and the Son. " :JO " would


For no man," saith
pray to he,
receive any thing from the Father and the angels, or from

any of the other creatures, neither would any man say,


God and the angel give me this." And whereas it might
be objected that Jacob, in the blessing that he gave unto

Ephraim and Manasseh. Gen. xLviii. 15, 16, did use this
form of prayer, The God which fed me from my youth
unto this day, the angel which delivered me from all evils,
31
bless those children, (which Cardinal Bellarmine placeth in
the forefront of the forces he bringeth forth to establish the
invocation of saints;) Athanasius answereth, that " he did
32

not couple one of the created and natural angels with God
that did create them, nor omitting God that fed him, did
desire a blessing for his
nephews from an angel; but saying,
Which delivered me from all evils, he did shew that it was
not any of the created angels, but the WORD of God,"
that is to say, the Son, " whom he coupled with the
Father and prayed unto." And for further confirmation
hereof he allegeth, among other things, that neither M Jacob
nor David did " pray unto any other but God himself for
their deliverance."
The place wherein we first find the spirits of the de-
ceased to be called unto, rather than called upon, is that
in the
beginning of the former of the Invectives which
Gregory Nazianzen wrote against the Emperor Julian, about
the 364th year of our Lord: "Aicove Kal r\ TOV fjiyd\ou

(et TIS aiffOrjo'is) bcrai T irpo avTov


" O
<f)i\oxpi<TToi 9 Hear, thou soul of great Con-
stantius (if thou hast any understanding of these things),
and as many souls of the kings before him as loved Christ."
Where the 34 Greek Scholiast upon that parenthesis putteth

30
OVK dv yavv evfcaiTo TIS Xafielv irapd ciiXoyiav jJTfi TOIS eyyoj/ots' a'XX' f l/otj/coJv,
TOV TraTpos Kal Ttav dyyeXuv, J ira/oa 'O pvofievos /ne K irdvTcav Ttav va/caij/,
TII/OS TtJav aXXa>i> /CTttr/uaVa)!/* dvoW etieifce pi) TV KTiffQevTtav Tivd dyyeXtov,
etTToi TIS, Aanj Beos Kal ayye-
aoi o aXXa TOV Aoyov fivat TOV 6eou, ov T<
Xos. Athanas. Orat. iv. contra Arian. TraTpl crvvaTTTtov rjvyeTO. Athanas. Ut
p. 259. supra, p. 260.
33 dXXov
31
Bellarm. de Eccles. Triumph, lib. i. Kai auTov 6e OVK 17

cap. 19.
&C. Kal o Aa/3t(5 OVK dXXov
Xci,
32 avTov TOV Qeov irapCKaXet irepl TOV
Ou Ttav KTiffQeirrtov Kal TTJV tyvtriv /

dyyeXtav ov-rcav tW avvrjirTai TU> K.TL- pvtrQfjvai. Id. ibid.


34
auTous Oew' ovde d^cls TOV Tpe- Schol. Graec. in priorem Nazianzeni
a avTov Ocoi/, Trap' dyyeXov T>JI/ Invectivam, p. 2, edit. Etonens.
AA2
372 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

ItfOKpaTiKOV, avTi TOV, Ecty TIS aiaOtjccif eorrt TWV


this note:
" He
T^e 11dKoveiv, speaketh according to the manner of Iso-
" If thou hast
crates, meaning, any power to hear the things
that are here." And therein he saith rightly; for Isocrates
useth the same form of speech both in his Evagoras and in his

^Egineticus Et Tie earlv aia-Orjai^ roTs TeOvewai (or rereXei/-


:

TrjKOGi) Trepl TU>V v9d$e 9 " If they which be dead have any
1'
sense of the things that are done here. The like limita-
tion is used by the same Nazianzen toward the end of the
funeral oration which he made upon his sister Gorgonia,
where he speaketh thus unto her: " If thou hast any care
35

of the things done by us, and holy souls receive this honour
from God, that they have any feeling of such things as these,
receive this oration of ours instead of many and before many
1
funeral obsequies.' So doubtful the beginnings were of that
which our Challenger is
pleased to reckon among the chief
articles, not of his own religion only, but also of the Saints
and Fathers of the primitive Church, who, if his word
may be taken for the matter, did generally hold the same

touching this point that the Church of Rome doth now.


But he had either himself read the writings of those
if

Saints and Fathers with whose minds he beareth us in hand


he is so well acquainted, or but taken so much information
in this case as the books of his own new masters were able
to afford him, he would not so peremptorily have avouched,
that prayer to saints was generally embraced by the doctors
of the primitive Church, as one of the chief articles of their
religion.
His own Bellarmine, he might remember, in handling

this very question of the invocation of saints, had wished


to "
36
him note, that because the saints which died before
the coming of Christ did not enter into heaven, neither did
see God, nor could ordinarily take knowledge of the prayers
of such as should petition unto them; therefore it was not
the use in the Old Testament to say, St Abraham, pray

35 Ei 5e TIS <roi Kcti TU>V ripfreptov <rri ventum sancti qui moriebantur, non in-

A.oyos, Kal TOVTO -rais oertais \lrv\ai<s e*c trabant in ccelum, nee Deum videbant,
Qeoi ye/oas, TWV rowvTtav e7rai<r0aj/eer0at, nee cognoscere poterant ordinarie preces
<5exoio KO.I TOV TJ/xeVe/ooi/ \6yov avrl TTO\- supplicantium ; ideo non fuisse consue-
\iav Kal Trpo -TroXXwj/ evTCKfriwv. Greg. tum inTestamento Veteri, ut diceretur,
Nazian. Orat. xi. in Gorgon. Sancte Abraham, ora pro me, &c. Bel-
36
Notandum est, quia ante Christi ad- larm. de Sanct. Beat. lib. i.
cap. 19.
OK PRAYER TO SAINTS.

for For at that we read saith " 37


me, ike." time, Suarez,
nowhere any man did directly pray unto the saints
that

departed, that they should help him or pray for him for ;

this manner of praying is proper to the law of grace, wherein


the saints, beholding God, are able to see in him the prayers
that are poured out unto them." So doth Salmeron also
" 3y that therefore it was not the manner in the Old
teach,
Testament to resort unto the saints as intercessors, because

they were not as yet blessed and glorified, as now they be,
and therefore so great an honour as this is was not due
unto them." And " 39 in vain," saith Pighius, " should their
suffrages have been implored, as being not yet joined with
God in glory, but until the reconciliation and the opening
of the kingdom by the blood of Christ the Redeemer, waiting
as yet in a certain place appointed by God, and therefore
notunderstanding the prayers and desires of the living,
which the blessed do behold and hear, not by the efficacy of
any proper reason reaching from them unto us, but in the
glass of the divine Word, which it was not as yet granted
unto them to behold. But after the price of our redemption
was paid, the saints now reigning with Christ in heavenly
glory do hear our prayers and desires, forasmuch as they
1'
behold them almost clearly in the Word as in a certain glass.
Now, that divers of the chief doctors of the Church
were of opinion, that the saints in the New Testament are
in the same
place and state that the saints of the Old Tes-
tament were in, and that before the day of the last judg-
ment they are not admitted into heaven and the clear sight

37 torum cum Deo in ad recon-


Quod autem aliquis directe oraverit gloria, sed
sanctos defunctos, ut se adjuvarent vel pro ciliationem usque et regni apertionem per

nusquam legimus. Hie enim


se orarent, sanguinem Redemptoris Christi, loco quo-
modus orandi est proprius legis gratia, in dam ordinato a Deo, adhuc exspectantium ;

quo sancti, videntes Deum, possunt etiam et propterea non percipientium orationes
in eo videre orationes quse ad ipsos fun- et vota viventium, ut quae non propriae
duntur. Fr. Suarez. in part. HI. Thorn. rationis ad nos usque pertingentis effi-
Tom. ii. Disput. XLII. sect. 1. cacia, sed in verbi divini speculo, quod
38
Dicendum est, ideo non fuisse morem intueri ipsis nondum datum erat, beati
in Veteri Testamento adeundi sanctos in- intuentur et audiunt. At post persolutum
tercessores, quia nondum erant beati et glo- redemption is nostrae pretium, sancti jam
rificati, ut modo sunt ; ideo non debebatur regnantes cum Christo in crelesti gloria
eis tantus honos quantus est iste. Alphons. etiam nostras preces votaque exaudiunt,
Salmer. in 1 Tim. ii.
Disput. VIH. ut quae universa in verbo clarissime in-
39
Antea frustra fuissent implorata ip- tuentur, velut quodam speculo. Albert.
sorum suffragia, utpote nondum conjunc- Pigh. Con trovers. XIH.
374 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [cHAP.

of God, wherein this metaphysical speculation of the saints'


40
seeing of our prayers is founded, hath been before declared
out of their own writings, where that speech of St Augustine,
*l
Nondum ibi eris ; quis nescit? "Thou shalt not as yet
be there; who knoweth itnot?" sheweth that the opinion
was somewhat general, and apprehended generally too as
1
more than an opinion. By the Romanists own grounds,
then, the more generally this point was held by the ancient
Fathers and the more resolvedly, the less generally of
force and the more doubtfully must the Popish doctrine
of praying to saints have been entertained by them. And
if our Challenger desire to be informed of this doubt that

was among the ancient divines, touching the estate of the


saints now in the time of the New
Testament, by the report
of the doctors of his own by our allega-
religion, rather than
tions, let him hear from Franciscus Pegna what they have
found herein: " 42 It was a matter in saith
1'

controversy,
" of whether the souls of the saints before the day
he, old,
of judgment did see God and enjoy the divine vision ;

seeing many worthy men and famous, both for learning and
holiness, did seem to hold that they do not see nor enjoy
it before the day of judgment, until, receiving their bodies

together with them, they should enjoy divine blessedness. For


Irenaeus, Martyr, Tertullian, Clemens Romanus,
Justin
Origen, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Augustine, Lactantius, Vic-
torinus, Prudentius, Theodoret, Aretas, GEcumenius, Theo-
phylact, and Euthymius, are said to have been of this
opinion ; as Castrus and Medina and Sot us do relate.
11
To
whom we may adjoin one more, of no less credit among our
Romanists than any of the others, even Thomas Stapleton
who taketh it for that " 43 these so
himself, granted,

40 See above, from p. 199 to 210, item Clemens Romanus, Origenes, Ambrosius,
p. 244, 245, 250, 251, 256, 329, &c. Chrysostomus, Augustinus, Lactantius,
41
August, in Psal. xxxvi. con. 1. Victorinus, Prudentius, Theodoretus, A-
42
Olim controversum fuit, num animae retas, (Ecumenius, Theophylactus, et

sanctorum usque ad diem judicii Deum Euthymius hujus referuntur fuisse sen-
viderent, et divina visione fruerentur; tentiae, ut commemorant Castrus et Me-
cum multi insignes viri et doctrina et dina et Sotus. Fr. Pegna, in part. n.
sanctitate clari tenere viderentur, eas nee Directorii Inquisitor. Comment, xxi.
43
videre nee frui usque ad diem judicii, Tot illi et tarn celebres antiqui pa-
donee receptis corporibus una cum illis tres, Tertullianus, Irenaeus, Origenes,
divina beatitudine perfruantur. Nam Ire- Chrysostomus, Theodoretus, CEcumenius,
naeus, Justinus Martyr, Tertullianus, Theophylactus, Ambrosius, Clemens Ro-
OK PKAYKK TO SAINTS. 375

many famous ancient Fathers, Tertullian, Irenaeus, Origen,


Chrysostom, Theodoret, (Ecumenius, Theophylact, Ambrose,
Clemens Romanus, and Bernard, did not assent unto this
" in the Council of Flo-
sentence, which now," saith he,
rence was at length, after much disputing, defined as a
doctrine of faith, that the souls of the righteous enjoy the

sight of GOD before the day of judgment; but did deliver


the contrary sentence thereunto."
We
would entreat our Challenger, then, to spell these
things and put them
together, and afterward to tell us
whether such a conclusion as this may not be deduced from
thence :

Such as held that the saints were not yet admitted to the

sight of God, could not well


hold that men should pray
unto them in such manner as the Romanists use now
to do
; because the saints not enjoying the sight of God
are not able ordinarily to take notice of the prayers
that are put up unto them :

But many and very famous doctors too among the ancient
did hold, that the saints are not yet admitted to the sight
of God :

Therefore many and very famous doctors among the


ancient could not well hold, that men should pray unto
the saints, in such manner as the Romanists use now to do.

The proposition is given unto us by Bellarmine


first

and his Jesuits ; the second by Stapleton and other


fellow
doctors of the Romish Church; yet all of them with equal
boldness agree in denying the conclusion. "
44
It is a certain
and manifest definition of the Councils," saith a Jesuit,
"confirmed by perpetual use from the times of the apostles,
and by the authority of ALL the Greek and Latin Fathers,
to be prayed unto and invocated."
that saints are
" 45 ALL

manus, D. Bernardus, huic sententiac, perpetuo ab apostolorum tem-


definitio,

quae nunc in Concilio Florentine, magna poribus usu et omnium Graecorum et


demum conquisitione t'acta, ut dogma fidei Latinorum patrum auctoritate firmata,
quod justorum animae ante
definita est, sanctos esse orandos et invocandos. Jo.
diem judicii Dei visione fruuntur, non Azor. Institut. Moral. Tom. i. lib. ix.

sunt assensi; sed sententiam contrariam cap. 10.


tradiderunt. Stapleton. Defens. Eccle- 45
Omnes patres Graeci et Latini decent,
siastic. Auctorit. contra Whitaker. lib. i.
sanctos esse invocandos. Bellarmin. de
cap. 2. Eccles. lib.
44 Triumph, i.
cap. !.

Certa est et manifesta conciliorum


376 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAJP.

the Fathers, Greek and Latin, teach this," saith Bellarmine.


" 46 ALL the
Fathers, as well Greek as Latin, perpetually
have called upon the saints," saith Salmeron. And this 17

" is clear
by ALL the writers of the first six hundred
years," quoth Stapleton. For these kind of men have so
inured their tongues to talk of all Fathers and all wri-
ters, that they can hardly use any other form of speech ;

having told such tales as these so often over, that at


last they persuade themselves that they be very true in

good earnest.
The memory of the martyrs indeed was from the very
beginning had in great reverence and at their memorials ;

and martyria, that is to say, at the places wherein their


bodies were laid, which were the churches whereunto the
Christians did in those times usually resort, prayers were

ordinarily offered up unto that God for whose cause they


laid down their lives. Where the Lord being pleased to
give a gracious answer to such prayers, and to do many
wonderful things for the honouring of that Christian pro-
fession which those worthy champions maintained unto the
death, men began afterwards to conceive that it was at
their suit and mediation that these things were granted
and effected. Which was the rather believed by reason
that the martyrs themselves were thought to have appeared
unto divers that were thus relieved, both at the places of
their memorials and otherwhere. Notwithstanding, in what
sort these things were brought about, St Augustine pro-
fesseth that it did pass the strength of his understanding
" 48
Whether
to define: the martyrs themselves were in
their own persons present at one time in such divers places,
so far distant one from another;" or whether they, remain-
ing in a certain place, removed from all commerce with
the affairs of men " 49
but praying in general for the
here,
necessities of suppliants," God by the ministry of his angels
did effect these things when, where, and in what manner

46
Patres universi, tarn Graeci quam tempore tarn diversis locis, et tanta inter
se longinquitate discretis, &c.
Latini, perpetuo sanctos interpellarunt. Augustin.
Alphons. Salmer. in 1 Tim. ii. Disput. de Cura pro Mortuis, cap. 16.
VII.
49
47
Et tamen generaliter orantibus pro
Stapleton, Fortress, part chap. 9.
i.
48 indigentia supplicantium. Ibid.
Utrum ipsi per seipsos adsint uno
OK I'll AY Mil TO SAINTS. 377

he pleased, but " ^especially at the memorials of the mar-


tyrs,
because he knew that to be expedient to us for the
building of the faith of Christ, for whose confession they
did suffer."
" M This matter is saith "than higher," he,
that it
may be touched by me, and more abstruse than
that it can be searched into by me; and therefore whether
of these two it be, or whether peradventure both of them
be, that these things may sometimes be done by the very
presence of the martyrs,
sometimes by angels taking upon
them the person of the martyrs, I dare not define."
The first of these opinions pleased St Jerome best, who
that place
allegeth for proof thereof the Revelation,
in

These follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. Where-


upon he inferreth a conclusion which hath need of a very
favourable
" 53 If the Lamb be
interpretation: everywhere,
they also that are with the Lamb must be believed to be
everywhere. From whom Maximus Taurinensis seemeth
not much to when he " 54
differ,although all the saintssaith,
be everywhere and profit men, yet they specially do all

labour for us, who have also suffered punishments for us."
So one Eustratius, a priest of Constantinople, made a col-
lection of divers testimonies, both out of the Scriptures and
the writings of the Fathers, to prove,
" 55 that the souls
which oftentimes and in different manners appear unto many,
do themselves appear according to their proper existence;
and it is not the divine power assuming the shape of the
holy souls that sheweth forth these operations." And so
strongly did this opinion prevail when superstition had once
gotten head, that at length this Canon was discharged

50
Maximeque per eorum memorias, cum agno sunt, ubique esse credendi sunt.
quoniam hoc novit expedite nobis ad Hieronym. advers. Vigilant.
54
aedificandam fidem Christi, pro cujus illi Licet universi sancti ubique sint, et
confessione sunt passi. Ibid. omnibus prosint, specialiter illi tamen
51
Res haec altior est,quam ut a me pro nobis interveniunt, qui et supplicia
possit attingi, et abstrusior quam ut a me pertulere pro nobis. Maxim. Homil. in
valeat perscrutari; et ideo quid horum Natali Taurinorum Martyrum.
duorum sit, an veto fortassis utrumque sit,
5'
"On eTTK^aivofievai TroXXois TroXXct-
ut aliquando ista fiant per ipsam praesen- <ci9 /cat /cctTa diatyopovs T/OOTTOUS at \f/v%ai)
tiam martyrum, aliquando per angelos avTai KCIT' idiav virapfciv eiri<paLvovTai,

suscipientespersonam martyrum, definire aXX' ou~)(i ouva/LUs 0eia, ei9 TUTTOVS ffYtj-
non audeo. Ibid. U dyitov \f/vxwv, TCCS
evep-
58
Rev. xiv. 4. vffi. Eustrat. in Photii
53
Si aguus ubique, ergo et hi, qui Bibliotheca, Cod. CLXXI.
378 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [cHAP.

should hold otherwise: " 5li


man
against those that lf any
say that the saints themselves do not appear, but their
angels only, let him be anathema." The author of the
Questions to Antiochus, commonly attributed unto Atha-
nasius, thus determineth the matter on the contrary side:
" 57
Those adumbrations and visions which appear at the
chapels and tombs of the saints are not made by the souls
of the saints, but by holy angels transformed into the shape
of the saints. For how otherwise, tell me, can the soul
of St Peter or St Paul, being but one, appear at the same
instant, being commemorated in a thousand churches of his
throughout the whole world? For this can neither one
angel do at any time, it being proper unto God alone to be
found at the same instant in two places and in the whole
world." And Anastasius Sinaita, or Nicaenus, in the self-

same manner: " 58


Tt is fit we should know that all the
visions which appear at the chapels or tombs of the saints
are performed by holy angels by the permission of GOD ;
for how else should it be possible, that the resurrection of
the being not yet made, but the bodies and the
bodies
flesh of the saints being as yet dispersed, that those should
be seen in shape complete men, and oftentimes appear upon
horses armed ? And if thou thinkest that thou mayest con-
tradict these things, tell me how can Paul, or Peter, or any
other apostle or martyr, being but one, appear oftentimes
at the same hour in many places ? For neither is an angel

56 58
FAoevat fievroi Trpo<r^Ket, OTL Trdcrai
EITIS OVK avTovv \eyei TOUS ayiovs
i]fjiiv TTirf>aive(r6at t ctXXa TOUS TuivSe ai oirraaiai, al yevofievai ev TOIS i/aois

<pq<riv ayyeXovs, eo-Ta> dvdQe/j.a. Canon. 17 (TO/ooIs Ttav dyicav, Si' dyitav dyye\(av

Synodi a Michaele Syncello citat. in Ig- eirLTe\ovvTai Si' e-TTtT/ooTT^s 0eou. eTrei
natii Patriarch. C. P. Encomio. TTais SvvaTOV, fiii
irta T^S aVaffTaVeeos
57 Al ev TOIS i/aois /cat
o-oyools TWV dyiwv Ttoy <ra)jUtTO)i yeyevrj/nevtii, d\\' CTL TU>V

yevofievai e7rr/acto-eis KO.I o-Trrao-iai ov oarfav KCLI TOW aapKwv TUIV dyioiv die-

Sid TWI/ \ffv~%<*>v T>V dyiwv yivovrai, a'XXcc (rKOpTrta-fjLevwv, elSeffQai TOUTOUS, etdei

Si dyye\tov dyiwv iLeTa.cryiifJ.a.'Titpp.eviav 6Xo/cX?j'/oous a/(5jOas, TroXXaKis e<j>' i'-TTTrots

eis TO eloos TWI/ dyltov. irais ydp, dire /not, oTTTavo/tievous /ca6a)'7rXt<r/u.ei'OUS ;
Et de

fiia ovaa iffvxn <TO ^ [taKapiov Tle-rpov r) dvTiXeyeiv vo^.'C(s ei<s, eiTre /J.OL crv, TTWS els
TLavXov SvvaTai KCTT' avTrlv TJJV poirr\v IlaDXos 17 ITeTjOos, 1; a'XXos
ev rfj /if rj'/u.7j ai/Tou eTrujtavijvat ev ^i\ioi<s ty /XCC/OTI/S,
/caT* avrriv TIJJ/

vaois avTov ev oXa> TW /coayia) ; TOUTO tapav TToXXa/cis ev TroXXots TOTTOIS oir-
ydp ovTe ayye\o$ els ftvvaTai. iroLijcrai j
OVTC ydp ayyeXos SvvaTai ev
TTOTC' fjiovov ydp TOV Qeov ecrTtv ev overt TOTTOIS ev avTrj Ty pcnrfj^ ei

TOTTOtS KO.I CV 0\0) TO> KOCT/JLW CV aVTTJ /uLn fiovos b direplypcnrTos Oeos. Anastas.
Tri powfi eupitTKeaOat. Athanas. Qusest. Sinait. Quaest. LXXXIX.
xxvi. ad Antioch.
IX.] OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. 379

able to be at the same instant in divers places, but God


only who is uncircumscriptible."
Whereunto we may further add those judicious observa-
tions of St Augustine touching this matter: " 59 If one in
his sleep may see me, telling unto him something that is
done, or foretelling also something that is to come, when
I am
altogether ignorant thereof, and have no care at all,
not only of what he dreameth, but whether he awaketh I
being asleep, or he sleepeth I being awake, or whether
both of us at one and the same time do either wake or
sleep, when he seeth the dream in which he seeth me;
what marvel is it if the dead, not knowing nor perceiving
these things, are yet seen in dreams by the living, and say
somewhat which they being awake may know to be true?"
" 60 But such is man's
weakness, that when any one seeth
a dead man in his sleep, he thinketh that he doth see
his soul; but when he dreameth in like manner of one
that is alive, he maketh no doubt that it is neither his soul
nor his body, but a similitude of the man that did appear
unto him ; as if not the souls, but the similitudes of dead
men, not knowing it, might not also after the same sort
1'

appear. So he telleth of one Eulogius, a rhetorician in


Carthage, who lighting upon a certain obscure place in
Cicero's Rhetorics, which he was the next
day to read unto
his scholars, was so troubled therewith that at night he
could scarce sleep " 61 In which
night," saith St Augustine,
:

" I
expounded unto him, while he was in a dream, that
which he did not understand; nay, not I, but my image,
I not knowing, and so far beyond the sea, either doing
59
Si ergo me potest aliquis in somnis habet, ut cum mortuum in somnis quis-
videre, sibi aliquid quod factum est indi- que animam se videre arbi-
viderit, ipsius
cantem, vel etiam quod futurum est pras- tretur cum autem vivum similiter som-
;

nunciantem, cum id ego prorsus ignorem,


niaverit, non ejus animam neque corpus,
et omnino non curem, non solum quid ille |
sed hominis similitudinem sibi apparuisse
somniet, sed utrum dormiente me vigilet, !
non dubitet, quasi non possint et mortuo-
an vigilante me dormiat, an uno eodemque \ rum hominum, eodem modo nescientium,
tempore vigilemus ambo sive dormiamus, non aiumae, sed similitudines, apparere
j

quando ille somnium videt et in quo me J


dormientibus. Ibid. cap. 11.
videt; quid mirum si nescientes mortui, <jl
Qua nocte somnianti ego
illi
quod
nee ista sentientes, tamen a viventibus non intelligebat exposui; imo non ego,
videntur in somniis, et aliquid dicunt, sed imago mea, nesciente me, et tarn longe
quod evigilantes verum esse cognoscant ? trans mare aliquid aliud sive agente sive
August, de Cura pro Mortuis, cap. 10. somniante, et nihil de illius curis omnino
60
Sic autem infirmitas humana sese curante. Ibid.
380 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [<:HAP.

or dreaming some other thing, and nothing at all caring


for his cares." The like he doth also note to happen unto
those that are in raptures and extasies: u62 For upon these
also do appear images, as well of the living as of the
dead but after they have been restored unto their senses,
;

as many of the dead as they say that they have seen, with
them they are truly believed to have been ; neither do they
mark who hear these things, that the images of some living
men, that were absent and ignorant of these things, were in
like manner seen by them."" And for the confession of the
devils in parties possessed, he bringeth in a memorable in-
stance of that which fell out in 63 Milan, at the place of
the memorial of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius;
where the devils did not only make mention of the martyrs
that were dead, but also of Ambrose the bishop, then
" and
living, besought him that, he would spare them, he
being otherwise employed, and being utterly ignorant of the
thing when it was
adoing."
But as St Augustine doth put us in mind in that
discourse, that " 64 men are sometimes led into
great errors

by deceitful dreams or just that they


visions, and that it is

should suffer such things;" so St Chrysostom giveth a good


1
admonition that little heed should be taken of the devils
" 65
What " that the devils
sayings : is it then," saith he,
do say, I am the soul of such a monk ?
Surely for this
I believe it not, because the devils say it, for they deceive
their hearers. And therefore Paul (Acts xvi. 18) silenced
them, although they spake truth, lest taking occasion from

62 64
Et his enim apparent imagines vivo-
j
Aliquando autem fallacibus somniis
rum atque mortuorum sed cum fuerint
:
j
(/. visis) hi homines in magnos mittun-
sensibus redditi, quoscunque mortuos vi- |
tur errores, quos talia perpeti justum est.

disse se dixerint, vere cum eis fuisse cre- Ibid. cap. 10.
duntur; nee attendunt qui haec audiunt, 65 Tt ovv, OTI ol Sai/noves \eyovcri, TOU
ab eis absentium atque nescien-
similiter
tium quorundam etiam imagines visas oia yap TOVTO ov iria-Teuu), e-Treiojj dai[j.o-
esse vivorum. Ibid. cap. 12. i/es\eyovcriv aVaTtocri yap TOV-S O.KOUOV-
63
Nam Mediolani apud sanctos Prota- Tas. cid TOVTO Kal b IlavXos /caiTOiye
sium et Gervasium martyres, expresso d\ridevoi>Tas eirea'Ton.i.Gev auTous, 'iva fjitj

nomine, sicut defunctorum quos eodem Xa/3oi/-re? ToZs dXrjdea-L /cat


modo commemorabant, adhuc vivum Ase- \}/vdfj TrdXtv dvafJLi^wa-t, Kal dgioTTi-
mones episcopum confitebantur Ambro- CTTOI yeviavTai. Chrysost. de Lazaro,
sium, atque ut parceret obsecrabant, illo Cone. n. Tom. v. p. 235, 236, edit.
aliud agente, atque hoc cum ageretur Savil.
|

omnino nesciente. Ibid. cap. 17.


IX.]
OF PRAYER TO SAINTS.

thence, they might mingle false things again with those


truths, and get credit to themselves." And touching dreams
and apparitions of the
dead, he addeth further: " lf at <ic

this time the dreams that appear oftentimes in the shapes


of them that have departed this life have deceived and

corrupted many, much more if this were once settled in


men's minds, that many of those that are departed did
return again unto us, that wicked devil would plot a thou-
sand guiles, and bring in much deceit into our life. And
for this cause God hath shut up the doors, and doth not
sufferany of the deceased to return back and tell the things
that are there, lest he, taking occasion from thence, should

bring in all his own devices." It was the complaint of


" 67
Synesius in his time, that there were many, both private
men and priests too, who feigned certain dreams, which they
called revelations." And in ancient writings we meet with

sundry visions, which, if


they be truly related, may more
justly be suspected to have been illusions of deceitful spirits
than true apparitions of blessed either souls or angels.
He that will advisedly read over Basilius Seleuciensis1
narration of the miracles of St Thecla, for example, must
either reject the work as
strangely corrupted, or easily be
drawn to yield unto that which I have said. For who can
digest such relations and observations as these? that ^they
who watch the night that goeth before her festivity, do at
that time yearly see her driving a in the air,
fiery chariot
and removing from Seleucia unto Dalisandus, as a place
which she did principally affect in regard of the commodity
and pleasantness of the situation ; that both she and other
of the saints deceased do " 69 rejoice much in solitary places,
and do ordinarily dwell in them ;" that after her death she

j6
Ei yap vvvj ovdevos OVTOI TOIOVTOV,
oveipoi 7roXXa/ci9 <ai/eVres ev TUTTOIS TUIU Trap' eavTov iravTa. elaaydyiy. Id. de
dire\86vTwv iroXXous TjiraTtjaai/ KO.L I^azar. Cone. iv. ibid. p. 256.
87
ie<t>Qeipav, fidXXov, ei TOVTO
TroXXai 2v)fj/oi Trap' r\fjiiv Kai idiioTai Kai
yeyfviifj.evov Kai KeK-paTtjKos ev rals
rjv te/oels, TrKaTTOfJievoi Ttz/as oveipovs, oDs
Ttav dvQpcoTrwv oiai/otats, olov OTI TroXXol avToi KoXovcriv a-TroKaXi'^/cis. Synes.
TUIV dirc\Q6vT<nv eTravtjXQov Tfd\iv, fivpi- Epist. LIX.
ous dv o /jLiapos cuifjuav eKelvot 5oXows 68
Basil. Seleuc. de Miraculis S. The-
ir\e%e, Kai TroXXr/V aTra-rtjv ets TOV fiiov clae, lib. ii. cap. 10.
TOVTO 89
eicrrjya'ye. oicc aTreKXeitre TCCS 0u/oas Kai ydp TOVTO fj.d\i<TTa TWV dyicov
.o
Beo9, Kai OVK dtpiijai Tiva TWV dircK- IStov, TO tjoe/u'at? -re ^ai/Deii/, Kai TavTai?
eJ? T(i TroXXa tiai;Xt^fo-0ai. Ib. cap. 21.
382 ANSWER TO A JESUIT\S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

should " ro
affect oratory and poetry, and be continually
delighted with such as did more accurately set forth her
n
praises," (even as Homer bringeth in Apollo tickled at
the heart with hearing the songs that were made unto him
in the
camp of the Grecians) ; of which he produceth two
special instances, the one of Alypius the grammarian, unto
whom, being forsaken of the physicians, Thecla, he saith,
did appear in the night, and demanded of him what he
ailed, and what he would ? He, to shew his art, and to
win the virgin's favour with the aptness of the verse, re-
turneth for an answer unto her that verse wherewith Homer
maketh Achilles to answer his mother Thetis in the first
of the Iliads :

OIc70a" Tirj TOI TOVT eiSviti TTCLVT'


ayopevco ;

" Thou knowest should I


:
why tell it thee that knowest all ?"

Whereat " 2
the martyr smiling, and being delighted,
-

partly
with the man, partly with the verse, and wondering that
he had answered so aptly," conveyed a certain round stone
unto him, with the touch whereof he was presently set on
foot from his long and perilous sickness. For the other
instance, the writer reporteth that which happened unto him-
For " 3 the martyr," saith he, " is such a lover of
"

self.

learning, and taketh such a delight in these oratorious praises,


that I will tell somewhat of those things that were done
to myself and for myself, which the martyr who did it
doth know to have been done, and that I lie not." Then
he telleth how, having prepared an oration for her anni-
versary festivity, the day before it should be pronounced
he was taken with such an extreme pain in his ear, that
the auditory was like to be quite disappointed; but that
the martyr the same night appeared unto him, and, shaking
him by the ear, took all the pain away. He addeth further,

70 Basil. Seleuc.
<&iXoXoyos yap, Kai ^iXoyuovtros, Kai ut supra,
del ~)(aipov(ra Ttus \oyiKtaTepov v<pri/j.ov- cap. 24.
73 Ourtt) <5e
uiv avT-nv. Ibid. cap. 24. ^XoXoyos ecrrtj/ 77 fidprvs,
71 MeX-TrovTes
'EKaepyov o Se (ppeva -rats did TWV \6y<av -rain-ais
*

aKOVwv. Hoin. Iliad, a. epia TI Kai Ttuv e/navrip Kai

yovv TJ /U.CJ/OTUS, Kai inrep efiov yeyovoTtav, oirep CCUTJJ 7} Trape-

'<rf)el(ra eiri TC TU> dvdpi eiri Te TO) eiret, a-)(rjKvla fJLOi /uLap-rvsoidev OTI yeyevriTai,

6av/j.d(ra<ra Se Kai cos /udXa Kai ov \l/evdofj.ai. Ibid. cap. 27


I X .

I
1 1' U AVK II TO S A NTS
I .

that the same martyr used often to appear unto him in his

study at other times, but once, more especially, while he


was in hand with writing this selfsame book. For having
71 " the
begun to be weary of the labour, martyr," saith
" seemed to sit by, close in my sight, where I used to
he,
be at my book, and to take the quaternion out of my hand,
in which I transcribed these things out of my table-book.

Yea, and she seemed unto me to read it, and to rejoice,


and to smile, and to shew unto me by her look that she
was pleased with the things that were written, and that it
behoved me to finish this work, and not to leave it imperfect."
These things do I here repeat, not with any intention
to disgrace
antiquity, whereof I profess myself to be as great
an admirer as any, but to discover the first grounds from
whence that invocation of saints did proceed, whereby the
honour of God and Chrises office of mediation was after-
wards so much obscured. That saying of St Augustine is
" T5 Whom
very memorable, and worthy to be pondered:
should I find that might reconcile me unto thee? Should
I have gone unto the angels? With what prayer? With
what sacraments? Many endeavouring to return unto thee,
and not being able to do it by themselves, as I hear, have
tried these things, and have fallen into the desire of curious

visions, and were accounted worthy of illusions." Whether


they that had recourse unto the mediation of martyrs, in
such sort as these had unto the mediation of angels, de-
served to be punished with the like delusions, I leave to
the judgment of others. The thing which I observed was
this, that such dreams and visions as these, joined with
the miraculous cures that were wrought at the monuments
of the martyrs, bred first an opinion in men's minds of
the martyrs' ability to help them, and so afterward led
them to the recommending of themselves unto their prayers
74 OvTta dc eyovTi <cai dvairXiipuMrai TOV TTOVOV TOUTOV, Kal /KTJ
'

e/j.oi ^acr/j.iwvTL
e&ofcev t; fia'/orus ir\ri<riov ev o\l/ei JJLOV
aTeXetrrov K-aTaXiireu/. Ibid. cap. 16.
j

TrapaKaQe^earOai, olnrep Kal eflos r\v fjioi


75
Quern invenirem qui me reconciliaret
Tr\v TT/OO? TO. /3t/3A.ta TroielcrQat crvvovaiav,
'

tibi ? An eundum mihi


ad angelos ?
fuit
Kcct d<j>aipel<rtiai fiou T^S -eip6s TI\V -re- Qua prece ? Quibus sacramentis ? Multi
, ev r\irep Kal Tav-ra CK TJ/S 8e\Tov conantes ad te redire, neque per seipsos
6j /cat dvayivuxrKeiv valentes, sicut audio, tentaverunt haec, et
/AOL, Kal e^SecrQai Kal pcidiav, Kal I inciderunt in desiderium curiosarum vi-
fi.ot TO> ftXefjifia-ri ta<s
dpea-Koi- sionum, et digni habiti sunt illusionibus.
TO -re TO?S ypa(fio/j.cvoi<s, KUI tos deoi /ue Augustin. Confess, lib. x. cap. 24.
384 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

and protection, where at first they expected only by their


intercession to obtain temporal blessings, such as those cures
were that were wrought at their tombs, and other like
external benefits ; but proceeded afterward to crave their
mediation the procuring of the remission of their sins
for
and the furthering of their everlasting salvation. " 76 As
often, dear brethren, as we do celebrate the solemnities of
the holy martyrs, let us so expect by their intercession to
obtain from the Lord TEMPORAL benefits, that by imitating
the martyrs themselves we may deserve to receive eternal,"
saith the author of the Sermon of the Martyrs, which is
found among the Homilies of St Augustine and Leo, and
*~
in the Roman Breviary is appointed to be read at the
common festival days of many martyrs. " 78 Be mindful of
1
the martyr/ saith St Basil in his Panegyrical Oration upon
" as
Mamas, many of you as have enjoyed him by DREAMS ;
as many of you as, coming to this place, have had him a

helper to your praying; as many as to whom, being called


by name, he shewed himself present by his works ; as many
travellers as he hath brought back again; as many as he
hath raised from sickness ; as many as he hath restored their
children unto, having been dead ; as many as have received

by his means a longer term of life."


Here a man may easily discern the breedings of this
disease, and as it were the grudgings of that ague, that
afterwards brake out into a pestilential fever. The martyr
is here vocatus
only, not invocatus yet ; not called upon

by being prayed unto, but called to join with others in


putting up the same petition unto his and their God. For
as here in the Church militant we have our fellow-soldiers
79
(7vi/cryaw<jai>Tas ,
>

striving together with us, and ^O-VIWTT-

ovpyovvras, helping together


with their prayers to God for

78
fiot TOV /mdpTvpos, oaoi
76 fratres Mi/)j<r6jjTe
Quotiescunque, carissimi, |

sanctorum martyrum solennia celebra- OL oveip'juv avTov ctTreXautraTe' ovoi irept.-


mus, ita ipsis intercedentibus exspectemus TM TOTTW TOVTCO, ea")(jjKearav

a Domino consequi vvvepyov eis irpocrev^V o<rots


temporalia beneficia,
ut ipsos martyres imitando accipere me- i <c\ij0eis e-Trt TOW epytav
reamur seterna. Serin, de Martyrib. ad oo-oi/s oooiTTOpovs e7r avt\y ay ev' oarovs e

Calcem Sermonum Leonis i. et Tom. i. ave<7TTj(rei/" ocrois Trainees ccire-


otrots
Oper. Augustin. Serm. xLVii.deSanctis. irpo-
77 Breviar. Roman, in Communi pluri- 6eo-fuas /3tou /j.a.KpoTepa.'s eiroiij(rev. Basil.
morum Martyrum extra tempus Paschale, de S. Mamante, Homil. xxvi.
j

7P 80
Lect. iv. Rom. xv. 30. 2 Cor. i. 11.
OF PKAYEK TO SAINTS. 385

us; and yet, because we pray one for another, we do not


pray one to another; so the Fathers, which taught that the
saints in the Church
triumphant do pray for us, might,
with St Basil, acknowledge that they had the
martyrs
eis to their prayer,
(Tuvepyov? 7rpocrev^v 9 fellow-helpers
and yet pray with them only, and not unto them. For
howsoever this evil weed grew apace, among the supersti-
especially, yet was it so cropped at first by
tious multitude
the skilful husbandmen of the Church, that it got
nothing
near that height which under the Papacy we see it is now
grown unto. Which that we may the better understand,
and more distinctly apprehend how far the recommending
of men's selves unto the
prayers of the saints, which began
to be used in the latter end of the fourth
age after Christ,
came short of that invocation of saints which is at this
day practised in the Church of Rome, these special dif-
ferences may be observed betwixt the one and the other.
First, in those elder times he that prayed silently was
thought to honour God
singular manner, as one that
in a
" 81
brought faith with him, and confessed that God was the
searcher of the heart and reins, and heard his prayer before
it was poured out of his mouth ;" the understanding of the
present secrets of the heart, by the general judgment of
the Fathers, 82 being no more communicated by him unto
the creatures than the knowledge of things to come; for
before the day wherein the secrets of the heart shall be
" 83
manifested, Almighty God alone doth behold the hidden
things," saith St Jerome, alleging for proof of this the text,
Matt. vi. 4, Thy Father that seeth in secret; Psalm vii. 9,
God searcheth the hearts and reins; and 1 Kings viii. 39,

81
Qui in silentio orat h'dem defert, et dito; et in alio loco, Scrutans corda et
confitetur quod Deus scrutator cordis et renes Deus ; et in Regum volumine, Tu
renis sit, et orationem tuani ante ille au- solus nosti corda cunctorum filiorum ho-
diat, quam tuo ore fundatur. Ambros. minum. Hieronym. lib. v. in Ezech. cap.
de Sacrament, lib. vi. cap. 4. xvi. Vide eundem lib. iv. in Ezech. cap.
82
n/ooyva>'crrTjs /cat Ka/>5ioyj/a>(TTTjs/KOvos xiv.; lib. iv. in Jerem. cap. xx. ; et lib.
6 6eos ip-Trap X 61 ' ^7r * ovSe avToi ol i.in Matt. cap. ix. (supra p. 102) ; Jo.
TCC ei;
Kupoia rj TO. fj.e\\
Chrysost. in Matth. Homil. xxix. edit.
Quaest. xcix. ad Antioch. Oper. Atha- Grsec. vel xxx. Latin.; Gennadium de
nasii, Tom. n. p. 303, edit. Graeco-Lat. EcclesiasticisDogmatib. cap. 81 ; Johan.
33
Et prius quidem solus omnipotens Cassian. Collat. vii. cap. 13 ; Sedulium
Deus cernit occulta, dicente sermone in Rom. ii. ; Paschas. de Spiritu Sancto,

evangelico, Et Pater qui videt in abscon- lib. ii. cap. 1 ; et alios passim.
386 ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

Thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men.


But now in the Church of Rome mental prayers are pre-
sented to the saints as well as vocal, and they are believed
to receive both the one and the other.
" 84 it was a
Secondly In the former times
',
great ques-
tion, whether at all, or how far, or after what manner, the

spirits of the 'dead did know the things that concerned us


here;" and consequently whether they pray for us only
u ss
j n genera]^' anc for the particulars God answereth us
l

according to our several necessities, where, when, and after


what manner he pleaseth. Anselmus Laudunensis, in his
interlineal upon that text,
gloss Abraham is ignorant of
MS, and
knoweth us not,
Israel (Isaiah Lxiii. 16,) noteth,
" 86
that Augustine saith that the dead, even the saints, do
not know what the living do, no, not their own sons."
And indeed St Augustine, in his book of the Care for the
Dead, maketh this inference upon that
place of Scripture :

" 87
great patriarchs as these were ignorant what
If such
was done toward the people that descended from them, unto
whom, God, the people itself was promised to come
believing
from how do the dead interpose themselves in
their stock,

knowing and furthering the things and acts of the living?"


and afterward draweth these conclusions from thence, which
88
Hugo de Sancto Victore, borrowing from him, hath inserted
into his book de Spiritu et Anima, cap. 29: " 89 The spirits
of the dead be there where they do neither see nor hear

84 86
Respondeo magnam quidem esse Augustinus dicit, Quia mortui ne-
quaestionem, nee in praesentia disseren- sciunt, etiam sancti, quid agant vivi, etiam
dam, quod sit operis prolixioris, utrum eorum filii. Gloss. Interlineal. in Esai.
vel quatenus vel quomodo ea quae circa LXiii.
87 Si tanti
nos aguntur noverint spiritus mortuorum. patriarchae, quid erga popu-
Augustin. in Psal. cviii. Enarrat. i. lum ex his procreatum ageretur, ignorave-
85 Deo
Vide eundem de Cura pro Mortuis, runt, quibus credentibus populus
cap. 16, supra citatum, in
p. 376. fin. ipse de illorum stirpe promissus est, quo-
Sanctos in genere sollicitos esse pro ec- modo mortui vivorum rebus atque actibus
clesia, et orare posse, atque etiam reipsa cognoscendis adjuvandisque miscentur?
orare, fatentur
Philippus in Apologia Augustin. de Cura pro Mortuis, cap. 13.
Spiritu et Anima, Tom. HI.
88 Lib. de
Confessionis Augustanas, articulo de In-
vocatione Sanctorum ; Brentius in Con- Operum Augustini, qui idem est cum libro
fessione Wirtembergensi, capite de Invo- ii. de Anima, inter Opera Hugonis Vic-
catione Sanctorum ; Kemnitius in tertia torini.
89
parte Examinis Concilii Tridentini : Cal- Ibi sunt spiritus defunctorum, ubi
vinus quoque libro tertio Institut. cap. 20, non vident quaecunque aguntur aut eve-
sect. 21 et 24, non repugnat huic senten- niunt in ista vita hominibus. Augustin.
tiae. Bellarm. de Missa, lib ii. cap. 8. de Cura pro Mortuis, cap. 13.
IX.]
OF PRAYKR TO SAINTS. .J87

the things that aiv done or fall out unto men in this life/"
" 90
Yet have they such a care of the living, although they
know not at all what they do, as we have care of the
dead, although we know not what they do."
" 91 The dead
indeed do not know what is done here while it is here in
doing, but afterward they may by such as die and hear it

go unto them from hence ; yet not altogether, but as much


as is permitted to the one to tell, and is fit for the other
to hear. They may know it also by the angels, which be
here present with us and carry our souls unto them. They
may know also by the revelation of God's Spirit such of
the things done here as is necessary for them to know."
Hitherto Hugo out of St Augustine; who is herein also
followed by Gratian, in the second part of the Decrees,
Caus. xni. Quaest. n. cap. 29, where the gloss layeth down
resolution thus: "
92
his Gratian moveth a certain incident
question, whether the dead know the things that are done
in this world by the living? and he answereth, that
they
do not ; and this he proveth by the authority of Isaiah,
(viz. Isaiah Lxiii. 16.)"
The like question is moved by the Master of the Sen-
" 93
Whether the saints do hear the of
tences, prayers
suppliants,and the desire of petitioners do come unto their
notice?" and this answer is returned thereunto: " It is NOT
INCREDIBLE that the souls of the saints which in the secret

90
Ita illi
(Diviti) fuit cura de vivis, verum etiam futura Spiritu Dei revelante
quamvis quid agerent omnino nesciret, cognoscere. Ibid. cap. 15.
est nobis cura de mortuis, 98
quemadmodum Facit Gratianus quandam incidentem
quamvis quid agant omnino utique ne- quaestionem, utrum defuncti sciunt qua
sciamus. Ibid. cap. 14. in mundo geruntur a vivis ? et respondet,
91
Proinde fatendum est, nescire qui- quod non ; et hoc probat auctoritate Esaia?.
dem mortuos quid hie agatur, sed dum hie Gloss, in xiii. Quaest. n.de Mortuis.
93
agatur ; postea vero audire ab eis qui nine Sed forte quaeris, Numquid preces
ad eos moriendo pergunt non quidem supplicantium sancti audiunt, et vota pos-
:

omnia, sed quae sinuntur indicare, qui si- tulantium in eorum notitiam perveniunt ?
nuntur etiam ista meminisse ; et quae illos, Non est incredibile animas sanctorum,
quibus haec indicant, oportet audire. Pos- quae in abscondito faciei Dei veri luminis
sunt et ab angelis, qui rebus quae aguntur illustratione laetantur, in ipsius contem-
hie praesto sunt, audire aliquid mortui,
platione ea quse foris aguntur intelligere,
quod unumquemque illorum audire de- quantum vel illis ad gaudium vel nobis
bere judicat, cui cuncta subjecta sunt, &c. ad auxilium pertinet. Sicut enim angelis,
Possunt etiam spiritus mortuorum aliqua qui Deo assistant, petitiones
ita et sanctis

quae hie aguntur, quae necessarium est eos nostrse innotescunt in Verbo Dei
quod
nosse, et qua? necessarium non est eos non contemplantur. Petr. Lombard. Sentent
.nosse, non solum pra'terita vel pra-sentia, lib. iv. Distinct, xi.v.
JJB2
388 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

of GocTs presence are joyed with the illustration of the true


light, do in the contemplation thereof understand the things
that are done abroad, as much as appertaineth either to
them for joy or to us for help. For as to the angels, so
to the saints likewise which stand before God, our petitions
made known in the Word of God which
are they contem-
plate." Upon which place of the Master Scotus disputing
this conclusion:
" 94
I say, that it is not neces-
groweth to
in respect of the beatitude that one in bliss should
sary
see our prayers, neither regularly or universally, in the
Word, because such a thing as is a necessary
it is not

sequel of beatitude; nor yet that they be revealed, because


that neither such a revelation doth necessarily follow upon
11
beatitude. Notwithstanding, for a reason which we shall
" it is PROBABLE that God
hear afterward, he saith,
of
doth specially reveal unto him that is in bliss such of our
prayers as are offered unto him, or unto God in his name."
The same conclusion doth Gabriel Biel make in his Lec-
tures upon the Canon of the Mass : for having shewed,
that " 95
the saints in heaven
natural know- their
first, by
ledge, which is the
knowledge of things in their proper

kind, know no prayers of ours that are here upon earth,


neither mental nor vocal, by reason of the immoderate dis-
tance that is betwixt us and them;" secondly, that " 96 it is
no part of their essential beatitude that they should see our

prayers other actions in the Word;" and thirdly,


or our
that " 97 it is not altogether certain whether it do appertain
to their accidental beatitude to see our prayers;" he thus
at length concludeth:
" 98
It is therefore said PROBABLY, that
94 Dico quod non est necesse ex ratione terra consistentium, neque mentales neque
beatitudinis, quod beatus videat orationes vocales, cognoscunt, propterimmoderatam
nostras, neque regulariter sive universali- distantiam inter nos et ipsos. Gabr. Biel,

ter, in Verbo, quia non est aliquid quasi in Canon. Miss. Lect. xxxi.
96
necessaria sequela beatitudinis; neque Non est de ratione beatitudinis essen-

quod revelentur, quia neque talis revela- tialis,ut nostras orationes, aut alia facta
tio necessario sequitur beatitudinem, &c. nostra, matutina cognitione videant in
Tamen probabile est quod Deus beatis Verbo. Ibid.
revelat de orationibus sibi, vel Deo in 97
Utrum autem videre nostras orationes
nomine ejus oblatis. Jo. Scotus in iv. pertineat ad eorum beatitudinem acci-
Dist. XLV. Quaest. iv. dentalem, non per omnia certum est.
85
Dicendum quod sancti in patria qui Ibid.
de facto in 98 Unde licet
coelis sunt, naturali cognitione probabiliter dicitur, quod
puta vespertina, quae est cognitio rerum in non necessario sequitur ad sanctorum
proprio gefcere, nullag orationes nostrum in beatitudinem, ut orationes nostras audiant
IX.]
OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. 389

although it doth not follow necessarily upon the saints'*

beatitude that they should hear our prayers of congruity,


yet that God doth reveal all things which are offered unto
them by men, whether in magnifying and praising them, or
in praying unto them and imploring their help." Cardinal
Bellarmine that " "if the saints should have need
supposeth,
thus of a new
revelation, the Church would not so boldly
say unto the saints, Pray for us, but would sometimes
all

entreat of God that he would reveal our prayers unto them."


Yet because " 100 it seemeth unto him superfluous to desire
ordinarily of them that they should pray for us, which
cannot ordinarily understand what we do in particular, but
know only in general that we are exposed to many dangers,"
he resolveth that " 101 there be some doubt in
although may
what manner the saints may know things that be absent,
and which are sometimes delivered by the affection of the
heart alone, yet it is certain that they do know them."
And you must " 102 note," saith Doctor Pesantius, "that this
is to be held for a
point of faith, that the saints do know
the prayers which we pour unto them ;" because " otherwise

they should be made in vain." So that to make good the


Popish manner of praying unto saints, that which at the
first was but
probable and problematical, must now be held
to be de Jide, and an undoubted axiom of
divinity.
Thirdly, In the Popish invocation formal and absolute
prayers are tendered to the saints; but the compellations of
them used at first were commonly either wishes only, or
requests of the same nature with those which are in this
kind usually made unto the living, where the requester is

de congruo ; tamen Deus eis revelat omnia periculis versari. Id. de Purgator. lib. ii.

qua ipsis ab hominibus offeruntur, sive cap. 15.


101
ipsos magnificando et laudando, sive eos Etsi dubitatio esse possit, quemad-
orando et auxilia implorando. Ibid. modum cognoscant absentia, et qua solo
89
Si indigerent sancti nova revelatione, cordis affectu interdum proferuntur, tamen
ecclesia non
diceret ita audacter omnibus certum est eos cognoscere. Id. de Eccles.
sanctis,Orate pro nobis ; sed peteret ali- Triumph, lib. i. cap. 20.
quando a Deo ut eis revelaret preces nos- 102
Et notandum, quod est de fide, beatos
tras. Bellarm. de Eccles.
Triumph, lib. i. cognoscere orationes, quas ad illos fundi-
cap. 20. mus, alias frustra fierent ; sed quod illas
00
Superfluum videtur ab eis (qui sunt videant in verbo, non est certum de fide ;
in purgatorio) ordinarie credo tamen esse probabile, magisque
petere, ut pro
nobis orent, quia non possunt ordinarie pium et rationi consonum. Alexand.
cognoscere quid agamus in particulari, Pesant. in part. i. Thorn. Qusest. xn.
sed solum in genere sciunt nos in multis Artie. 10, Disput. vii. Conclus. vi.
390 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE, [CHAP.

oftentimes superior to him whose prayers he desireth ; which


standeth not well with the condition of 103 prayer properly
so called and they that are requested be evermore accounted
;

in the number of
those that pray for MS, but not of those
that are prayed unto by us. Of this you may hear, if you
please, what one of the more moderate Romanists writeth :
" 104
If it were lawful for the Prophet to call to the angels
and the whole host of heaven, and to exhort them that they
would praise God, which notwithstanding they do continually
without any one admonishing them, whereby nothing else
but a certain abundance of desire of the amplifying of
God's glory is declared ; why may it not be lawful also,
but of a certain abundance of godly desire, to call upon
those blessed spirits which by the society of the same body
are conjoined with us, and to exhort them that they should
do that which we believe they otherwise do of themselves?
That to say, All ye saints, pray unto God for me, should

import as much as if it were said, Would to God that all


the saints did pray unto God for me! I wish earnestly
that saints should pray to God for me!"
all the Thus
writeth Cassander, in his notes upon the ancient Ecclesiasti-
cal Hymns, published by him in the year 1556, who, being
challenged for this by some others of that side, added this
further to give them better satisfaction: " 105
When I did
see that it was not necessary that we should hold that the
103
Est enim oratio actus quidam ra- 105
Cum viderem non necessarium ut
tionis, quo unus alter! supplicat, inferior statuamus sanctos intelligere nostras pre-
videlicet superiori. Bellarm. de Bonis ces, credebam ad calumnias
nonnullo-
Operib. in particular!, lib. i. cap. 7. rum repelkndas satis esse, si dicamus-
104
Si prophetae licuit, appellare angelos per modum desiderii eas interpellationes
ct universum ccelestem exercitum, eosque explicari posse; quod minus habet ab-
hortari ut Deum
laudent, quod tamen surditatis, et divinarum literarum exem-
nullo etiam monente assidue faciunt, quo plis congruit. Si quis autem hujusmodi
sane nihil aliud quam abundantia quas- compellationes pro intimatione quoque
dam studii divinae gloria amplificandae desiderii et directa, ut ita loquamur, allo-
declaratur ; cur etiam non liceat beatos cutione haberi velit, non repugno. Cre-
illos spiritus, ejusdem corporis societate diderim tamen hujusmodi intimationi ta-
nobiscum conjunctos, ex quadam pii de- citam conditionem subesse debere ; qua-
siderii redundantia compellare, atque ex- lem Gregorius Nazianzenus in oratione
funebri sororis Gorgoniae exprimit, cum
hortari, uti id faciant, quod eos ultro fa-
cere credimus ? ut perinde valeat, Omnes ait, Proinde si nostri sermones vel parum-
sancti, orate Deum prome ac si dicatur,
; per tibi curae sint, honorque talis sancti
Utinam omnes Deum orent pro me
sancti ! a Deo debetur animabus, ut talia rescis-
cant, suscipe et tu sermonem
quam velim ut omnes sancti Deum orent nostrum*

pro me !
Georg. Cassand. Schol. in Hymn. Id. Epist. xix. ad Jo. Molinaeum, p
Ecclesiastic. Operum, p. 242. 1100.
IX.]
OF PRAYEIl TO SAINTS. 391

saintsdo understand our prayers, I thought it was sufficient to


back the calumnies of some, if we should
put say that these
interpellations might be expounded by way of wishing or
desiring; which hath less absurdity in it, and is agreeable
to the examples of the Holy Scriptures. But if any man
would have such compellations as these to be taken also for
an intimation of the desire and a direct speaking unto them,
I do not gainsay it. Notwithstanding, I would think that
a tacit condition ought to be understood in such an inti-
mation ; such as Gregory Nazianzen doth express in the
Funeral Oration of his sister Gorgonia, when he saith, If
thou hast any care at all of our speeches, and holy souls
receive this honour from God, that they have notice of such

things as these, do thou accept this oration of ours."


Yea, in the very darkest times of the Papacy there
wanted not some who for certain reasons, recited by Guli-
elmus Altissiodorensis and Gabriel Biel, resolved that neither
the saints do pray for us, neither are we to pray unto them.
" 106 With these and such like " were
reasons," saith Biel,
the heretics deceived, and some Christians in our time are
now deceived."* " 107 For these and the like reasons," saith
" MANY do
Altissiodorensis, say, that neither we pray unto
the saints, nor they pray for us, but improperly ; in respect

108 His et similibus rationibus decepti nee ipsi orant pro nobis, nisi impro-
tos,
sunt dicti haeretici decipiuntur et nunc prie; ideo scilicet quia oramus Deum ut
:

nonnulli nostro tempore Christian!. Gabr. sanctorum merita nos juvent Unde :

Biel, in Canon. Miss. Lect. xxx. Adjuvent nos eorum merita, &c. Gu-
107
Propter istas rationes et consimiles lielm. Altissiodor. in Summ. part. iv. lib.
dicunt multi, quod nee nos oramus sanc- iii. Tract, vn. cap. de Orat. Quaest. vi.

In the third edition, 1631, "correct- " Praesertim cum a quibusdam famosis
[
ed and enlarged by the Author," it is verisimiliter aestimatur, quod hujusmodi
added " Which moved John suffragia et orationes in ecclesia Dei su-
:
Scharpe
in the University of Oxford publicly to perfluunt ; quibusdam vero sapientibus
dispute the two questions, of praying to videtur contrarium. Jo. Scharpe, Proam.
Saints and praying for the dead; espe- in Qusestiones de orationibus auctorum

cially because it was esteemed by some et suffragiis viatorum. MS. in bibliotheca


famous men, and not without probability, Collegii Mertonensis Oxon." It seems

that such suffrages and prayers were probable that in the copy which the
Author "
superfluous in the Church of God, al- learned left corrected under

though some other wise men thought the his own hand" he intentionally restored
contrary. In this particular question the passage to the form in which it had
now in hand Altissiodorensis telleth us, stood in the former editions. ED.]
that MANY," &c. And in the margin :
302 ANSWEIl TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

we pray unto God that the merits of the saints may help
us." For which he referreth us unto the versicle used to
be sung at the feast of All- Saints, which in the breviary of
Sarum I find laid down in this manner :

108
Adjuvent nos eorum merita,
Quos propria impediunt scelera;
Excuset intercessio,
Accusat quos actio;
Et qui eis tribuisti

Coelestis palmam triuraphi,


Nobis veniam non deneges peccati.

" Let their merits help us, whom our own sins do hinder;
let their intercession excuse us, whose own action doth accuse
us; and thou, who hast bestowed upon them the palm of
the heavenly triumph, deny not unto us the pardon of our
sin." Where, if any poison do remain hidden under the
name of merits, we will prepare an antidote against it in
its
proper place.
And, in the meantime, observe here a fourth difference
betwixt the Popish prayers and the interpellations used in
the ancient time. For by the doctrine and practice of the
Church of Rome, the saints in heaven are not only made

joint petitioners with us, as the saints are upon earth, but
also our attorneys and advocates, who carry the suit for us,
not by the pleading of Christ's merits alone, but by bringing
in their own merits likewise; upon the consideration of the

dignity or condignity whereof it is believed that God


yieldeth to the motions they make unto him in our behalf.
" 109 We
pray unto the saints," saith the Master of the
" that
Sentences, they may intercede for us, that is to say,
that their merits may help us, and that they may will our

good; for they willing it, God doth will it, and so it will
be effected." 110
We " to entreat the and
ought apostles
ice
fjreviar. secundum usum Sarum. nobis, id est, ut merita eorum nobis suf-
in Omnium Sanctorum officio. Whence I fragentur, et ut ipsi velint bonum nos-
correct the error of Illyricus, in Catalogo trum; quia eis volentibus Deus vult, et
testium veritatis, edit. Basil, ann. 1562, ita fiet Petr. Lombard. Sentent. lib. iv.
p. 390, cited by me in the former editions Distinct. XLV. et Jacobus de Vitriaco,
of this treatise, who allegeth this out of in Litania majori.
the Breviary of the Preemonstratensian 110
Rogare debemus apostolos et alios
Order in a contrary sense, reading the sanctos in omni necessitate nostra, quia
place interrogatively. ipsi sunt advocati nostri, et medii inter
109
Oramus sanctos ut intercedant pro nos et Deum, per quos Deus ordinavit
IX.]
OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. 393

other saith de Prato, " in our ne-


the saints," Hugo all

cessities, because
they are our advocates and the means
betwixt us and God, by whom God hath ordained to bestow
all things upon us."
ln
Because " it is a thing fitting,"
saith Scotus,
" that he that is in bliss should be a
coadjutor
of God in procuring the salvation of the elect, according to
such manner as may agree unto him and to this it
this ;

is requisite, our prayers which are offered unto him


that
should specially be revealed unto him, because they lean

specially upon the merits of him as of a mediator bringing


us to the salvation which is
sought for ; therefore it is pro-
bable that God doth specially reveal unto him that is in
bliss such of our prayers as are offered unto him or unto
God in his name." But this is an open derogation to the
high prerogative of our Saviour's meritorious intercession,
and a manifest encroachment upon the great office of medi-
ation, which the most religious and learned among those
Fathers, who desired to be recommended unto the prayers
of the saints, were so careful to preserve entire unto him.
44 "2
For what is so proper to Christ," saith St Ambrose,
" as to stand
by God the Father for an advocate of the
" ll3 He is the
Priest," saith St Augustine,
" who
people?"
being now entered within the veil, ALONE there of them that
have been partakers of flesh doth make intercession for us;
in figure of which thing, in that first people and in that
first temple the priest only did enter into the holy of holies,
and all the people stood without." And therefore where
St John saith, These things write I unto you, that ye sin
not; and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, 1 John ii. 1, St Augus-

omnia nobis largiri. Hug. de Prat. Ser- babile est, quod Deus beatis revelat de
mon, xxxv. Luc. xxn. Ego dispono orationibus sibi, vel Deo in nomine ejus
vobis, sicut disposuit mihi pater meus oblatis. Jo. Scot, in iv. Sent. Dist. XLV.
regnum. i. Sicut Deus pater dedit mihi Quaest. iv.
omnia 118
regnum et in manus, ita et ego Quid enim tarn proprium Christi,
concedo vobis. quam advocatum apud Deum patrem ad-
111
Quiacongruum est beatum esse co- stare populorum ? Ambros. in Psal. xxxix.
113
adjutorem Dei in procurando salutem Ipse sacerdosest, quinunc ingressus
electi, eo modo quo hoc sibi potest com- in interiora veli, solus ibi ex his qui car-
petere ; et ad istud requiritur sibi reve- nem gestaverunt interpellat pro nobis.
lari orationes nostras specialiter quae sibi In cujus rei figura in illo
primo populo
oflferuntur, quia illae specialiter innituntur et in illoprimo templo unus sacerdos in-
meritis ejus, tanquam mediatoris perdu- trabat in sancta sanctorum, populus omnis
centis ad salutem quae petitur ; ideo pro- foras stabat. August, in Psalm. Lxiv.
394 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

tine, in his exposition upon that place, maketh this observa-


tion thereupon: that St John being so great a man as he
"
did not say, YE have, nor Ye have ME, nor YE
114
was,
have Christ himself; but did both put in Christ, not him-
self; and also said, WE
have, not YE have;" because "he
had rather put himself in the number of sinners, that he
might have Christ to be his advocate, than put himself for
an advocate instead of Christ, and be found among the
proud that should be damned ;" and from thence draweth
this conclusion against Parmenian the Donatist " 115 If he :

had said thus: I have written this unto you that you sin not;
and if any man sin, you have me a mediator with the
Father ; I make intercession for your sins ; (as Parmenian
in one place doth make the Bishop a mediator betwixt the

people and God;) what good and faithful Christian would


endure him ? who would look upon him as the apostle of
Christ, and not as antichrist rather ?" The doctrine there-
fore and practice of the Church of Rome in this point, by
this learned Father's judgment, must needs be held to be

ungodly and antichristian.


Fifthly, The recommendation of men's selves unto the
prayers of the saints deceased, which was at first admitted
in the ancient Church, did no way impeach the confidence
and boldness which we have gotten in Christ to make our
immediate approach unto the throne of grace, which by the
invocation of saints, now taught in the Church of Rome,
is
very much impaired. For to induce men to the practice
of this, the great majesty of God and the severity of his
justice is propounded unto poor sinners on the one hand,
and the consideration of their own baseness and unworthi-
ness on the other; whereupon it is inferred, that as well
for the manifesting of their reverence to God's majesty, as
the testifying of their submissiveness and humility, they
114
Non dixit, habetis, nee me habetis non peccetis, et si quis peccaverit, media-
dixit, neeipsum Christum habetis, dixit ; torem me habetis apud patrem, ego exoro
sed et Christum posuit, non se, et habe- pro peccatis vestris, (sicut Parmenianus
mus dixit, non habetis. Maluit se ponere quodam loco mediatorem posuit episco-
in numero peccatorum, ut haberet advo-
pum populum et Deum,) quis eum
inter
catum Christum, quam ponere se pro ferretbonorum atque fidelium Christia-
Christo advocatum et inveniri inter norum? Quis sicut apostolum Christi,
damnandos superbos. Id. Tractat. i. in et non sicut antichristum intueretur ?
1 Epist. Johan. cap. ii. Id. lib. ii. contr. Epist. Parmenian.
115
Si ita diceret, Hoc scripsi vobis ut cap. 8.
OF PRAYER TO SAINTS.

should seek to God by the mediation of his saints, like


as men do seek to the king by the mediation of his servants ;

which motives can have no more force to encourage men to


the invocation of saints, than they have to discourage them
from the immediate invocation of God and his Christ. So,
among the causes alleged by Alexander of Hales why we
" 116 in
ought to pray unto the saints, one is, respect of
our want in contemplating, that we, who are not able to
behold the highest light in itself, may contemplate it in
"
his saints ;"
another, respect of our want in loving,
in
11
because we, miserable men, (miserable men, indeed, that
do so,) " or some of us at least, are more affected some-
times unto some saint than unto our Lord himself, and
therefore God, having compassion on our misery, is pleased
and a third, u 117 in
11
that we should pray unto his saints;

respect of the reverence of God, that a sinner who hath


offended God, because he dareth not to come unto him in
his own person, may have recourse unto the saints by
11

imploring their patronage. The like we read in Gabriel


" 118 This is a
Biel, handling the same argument: singular
saith he, " to sinners, who have oftentimes
11
consolation,
more mind to the interpellation of the saints than of the
Judge, whose defect of holiness also other men's goodness
" 119 for the reverence
is
supply ;" and it maketh
able to
of God, that a sinner who hath offended God, as it were
not daring for the dross of his sin to appear in his proper

person before the most high and dreadful Majesty, should


have recourse unto the saints, who are most pure and

116 118
Ulterius propter nostram inopiam Peccatoribus singularis est consola-
incontemplando ; ut qui non possumus tio, qui ad sanctorum interpellationem
summam lucem in se aspicere, earn in quandoque magis animantur quam judi-
suis sanctis contemplemur. Tertio prop- cis, quorum etiam sanctitatis defectum
ter inopiam in amando ; quia nos misera- supplere potest probitas aliena. Gabriel
biles homines, vel plerique nostrum, magis Biel, in Canon. Miss. Lect. xxx.
afficimur circa sanctum aliquem aliquan- 119
Propter Dei reverentiam, ut scilicet
do, quam etiam circa Dominum ; et ideo peccator qui Deum offendit, quasi non
Dominus compassus nostrae miseriae, vult audens in persona propria, propter peccati
quod oremus sanctos suos. Alexand. scoriam, coram Majestate altissima pari-
de Hales. Sum. part. iv. Quaest. xxvi. ter et tremenda apparere, recurreret ad
Memb. 3, Artie. 5. sanctos purissimos et Deo gratos, qui pec-
117
Propter Dei reverentiam, ut pecca- catoris preces altissimo praesentarent, eas-
tor qui Deum ofFendit, quia non audet in que suis adjunctis meritis et precibus
propria persona adire, recurrat ad sanctos, magis reddercnt exaudibiles, placidas, at-
eorum patrocinia implorando. Id. ibid. que gratas. Ibid. Lcct. xxxi.
396 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

grateful to God, who may present the sinner's prayers unto


the Most High, and by adjoining their merits and prayers
thereunto might make the same more fit for audience, more
pleasing and more grateful." Therefore Salmeron the Jesuit
sticketh not to deliver his opinion plainly, that the praying
unto God by the saints seemeth to be better than the
" 120 so
praying unto him immediately; as for other reasons,
because the Church, which hath the Spirit of Christ," (though
St Augustine surely would have judged such a Church to
be led by the spirit of antichrist rather than of Christ,)
" most
frequently hath recourse unto God by the saints,
but cometh more rarely unto God by itself;" and also be-
cause " the praying of God by the invocation of saints doth

argue greater humility, as may be seen in the Centurion,


Luke vii. 6, 7." Whereunto he applieth also the saying of
David,
m He hath had respect to the prayer of the humble,
and did not despise their prayers; and of Judith, l22 The
prayer of the humble and meek hath always pleased thee.
Thus in the days of the Apostles themselves, under
123
the pretence of humility, some laboured to bring into the
Church the worshipping of angels, which carried with it
124
a shew of wisdom, as St Paul speaketh of it, and such
a shew as was not far unlike unto that wherewith our Romish
doctors do cozen simple people now-a-days. For " 125 this,"
saith Theodoret,
" did they counsel should be done," namely,
that men should pray unto angels, " pretending humility,
and saying, that the God of all things was invisible, and
and incomprehensible, and that it was fit we
inaccessible,
should procure God's favour by the means of angels."
Whereas St Chrysostom, treating of Christian humility,
sheweth that the faithful, who are furnished with that
grace, do notwithstanding " 126
ascend beyond the highest
120
Tertio, quia ecclesia, quae Christ! yt//6<r0at, TaTreivorppoarvvy orjQev
Spiritum habet, frequentissime per sanc- /JLGVOL Kal XeyOl/TSj O)S OO^ttTOS 6 TW1/
tos recurrit ad Deum, rarius per se ad o\wv Oeos dv
Deum accedit. Quarto, precatio Dei per irros, Kal TT/ooo-rjVet Sid rcav dyyeXoov TJI/
invocationem sanctorum arguit majorem Qeiav ev/JLevetav irpay/aaTevecrQai, Theo-
humilitatem, sicut videri estin Centurione. doret. in Coloss. cap. ii.
126
Alphons. Salmer. in 1 Tim. ii. Disput. vii. Ol Kal auras VTrepfSaivovari TOV ov-
sect. ult. pavov Tas a'^t^as, Kal dyyeXovs Trapep-
121 122
Psalm cii. 17. Judith ix. 16. Trapeo-TTj'/cacrii/ auTai TO) Qpovia
123
Coloss. ii. 18. 124
Ibid. ver. 23. TW (3a<ri\iKM. Chrysostom. in Matth.
5
TOVTO Toivvv ovve/3ov\evoi' ineivoi Homil. LXV. edit. Graec. LXVI. Latin.
,X.J
OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. 397

tops of heaven, and passing by the angels, present them-


selves before the regal throne itself;" yea, m
by learning
thus to speak with God in prayer, he sheweth that the man
himself is made a kind of an " angel ; the soul is so set
loose from the bonds of the body, the reasoning is raised

up so high, he is so translated into heaven, he doth so


overlook these worldly things, he is so placed by the regal
throne itself, although he be a poor man, although a servant,
although a simple man, although an unlearned.'" Neither is
it to be forgotten that the heathen idolaters also, to cover
" 128
the neglecting of God, were wont
shame of their to
use this miserable excuse, that by these they might go to

God, as by officers we go
which is the very to the king;"
selfsame rag our Romanists have borrowed from them to
cover their superstition with, that the nakedness thereof

might not appear. But St Ambrose, or whoever else was


author of those commentaries upon St Paul's Epistles that
are found his works, hath met well with them, and
among
sufficiently discovered the vanity of these gross and carnal
" 129 Go saith he, "is there any man so
imaginations: to,"
mad or so unmindful of his salvation, as to give the king's
honour to an officer? whereas if any shall be found but to
treat of such a matter, they are justly condemned as guilty
of high treason. And yet these men think themselves not
guilty, give the honour of God's name to a creature,
who
and leaving the Lord, adore their fellow-servants, as though
there were any thing more that could be reserved to God.
For therefore do men go to the king by tribunes or officers,

127 aut salutis suae


"Avdpoairos yap Oeoi TraidevQei? Sia- immemor, ut honorificen-

Xeye<r0ai, we ei/cos TOV TU> 0eo5 diaXeyo- tiam regis vindicet comiti ? cum de hac re
si qui etiam tractare fuerint inventi, jure
fjievov, ayyeXos evrai \onrov. OI/TOJS d-Tro-

XVSTOI TWV Sea-fjiwv TOV (raJ/uaTos tj ^ux^j ut rei damnentur majestatis. Et isti se
OVTCO fiCTaptrwi avTca yiuerai o Xo-yioyios* non putant reos, qui honorem nominis Dei
o'iiTta /i6TOi/aeTcu
irpos TOV ovpavov' ov-
deferunt creaturae, et relicto Domino con-
TCO? inrepopa TWV ftiwTiKtav' O'VTW Trap' servos adorant ; quasi sit aliquid plus quod
CIVTOV 'iGTCLTai TOV Bpovov /3ao-iXi/coi/, KO.V servetur Deo. Nam et ideo ad regem per
Trei>T]9 77, KO.V oiKeVtjs, KO.V i<5itoTfjs, KO.V tribunes aut comites itur, quia homo uti-

d/ua0tjs. Id. in Psal. iv. que est rex, et nescit quibus debeat rem-
publicam credere. Ad Deum, ante quern
188
Solent tamen, pudorem passi neglect!
Dei, misera uti excusatione, dicentes per utique nihil latet, (omnium enim merita
istos posse ire ad Deum, sicut per comites novit, ) promerendum sufFragatore non opus
pervenitur ad regem. Ambros. in Rom. est, sed mente devota. Ubicunque enim
cap. i. talis locutus fuerit ei, respondebit illi.
129
Age, numquid tamdemensestaliquis, Ibid.
398 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE.

because the king is but a man, and knoweth not to whom


he may commit the state of the commonwealth. But to
pro-
cure the favour of God, from whom
nothing is hid, (for he
knoweth the merits or works of all men,) we need no spokes-
man but a devout mind ; for wheresoever such a one shall
speak unto him, he will answer him."
But of all others St Chrysostom is most plentiful in

setting out the difference of the access which we may have


to God and to the great ones in this world: " l30 When
we have unto men," saith he in one place, " we have
suit
need of cost and money, and servile adulation, and much
going up and down, and great ado. For it falleth out
oftentimes that we cannot go straight unto the lords them-
selves, and present our gift unto them and speak with them;
but it is necessary for us first to procure the favour of
their ministers and stewards and officers, both with
paying
and praying and using all other means unto them, and then
by their mediation to obtain our request. But with God
it is not thus for there is no need of intercessors for
;

the petitioners, neither is he so ready to give a


gracious
answer, being entreated by others, as by our own selves
" 131 When thou hast need to sue unto
praying unto him."
men," saith he in another place,
" thou art forced first to
deal with door-keepers, and to entreat parasites and flatterers,
and to go a long way. But with God there is no such
matter : without an intercessor he is entreated, without money,
without cost, he yieldeth unto thy prayer. It sufficeth only
that thou cry in thine heart, and bring tears with thee,
130
'Avdpuoirwv fiev yap Seo/uLevoi, Kal xv. et Jo. Damasceno in Parallel, lib. ii.

Kai K0\a- ab editore Pontificio ad mar-


cap. 15, ubi
etas dovXoTTpeTrovs, Kal iroXA^s irepioSov ginem appositum est hoc pharmacum :

/catTT/oay/iaTetas' ov yap e evQei


131
-rots Kvpiots dovvai TJJI; ydp iv eiu, 'AvQpwTTOvs fiev yap OTO.V Seri irapa-

\ej(QJjvat,TroXXa/as* d\\' dvdyKr] irpn- /caXecrat, K

Tepov StaKovovs Kal olKovopowi avTcov irpoTepov, Kal Trapao-tTovs icat

Kai eirtT/ooTrous /cat )(/>rj/ia<rt Kal pq/j.a<rt /coXa/cas irapaKaXeirat, Kal bdov

Kal iravrl Oepairevaai T/OOTTO), /cat TOTC /. eirl 8e TOV Qeov ovdev TOIOVTOV
<5i' cKeivoov dvvrjQfjvaL rqv atTfjcrti/ Xa/Setv. aXXa -%(apl<s perri-rov -Tra/oa/caXet-
CTTL 8e TOV Qeov OVK ewriv OVTWS. ov yap Tat, ^w/ots
rt Ta>v a'ioui/TO)i/, ov&e eTTivevei rfj oerjo-et. a'/o/cet /ULOVOV (3ofj(rai
OUTW Si ereptav TrapaKaXov/mevos, ws ot* T\J Kapcia, Kal daKpva irpocreveyKai, Kal
rj/ntoi; avTwv deo/J.evwv eTnvevei TJJ ^dptTi. avTov eTnarTrdvri Chry-
tuBetos 6t<reX0ft)V .

Chrysost. in Matt citat. a Theodore Daph- sost. Serm. vn. de Pcenitent. Tom. vi.
nopat. in Eclogis (Tom. vn. edit. Savil. edit. Savil. p. 802, qui in aliis editionibus

p. 7^8,) Maximo, in loc. commun. Serm. est Serm. iv. de Pcenitent.


OF PRAYKR TO SAINTS.

and entering in
straightway thou mayest draw him unto
" 132 a third place, " it
thee." Amongst men," saith he in
behoveth him that cometh unto one to be a man of speech,
and it is required that he should flatter all those that are
about the prince, and to think upon many other things,
that he may find acceptance. But here there is need of
nothing save of a watchful mind only, and there is nothing
that hindereth us from being near to God." So in his
sermon upon the woman of Canaan, which he made in
his latter days, after his return from his first banishment :

" 133
God " If thou wilt entreat
always near," saith he.
is

man, thou askest what he is a-doing, and he is asleep, he


is not at leisure, or the servant giveth thee no answer.
But with God none of these things.
there is Whitherso-
ever thou goest and callest, he heareth ; there is no want

of leisure, nor a mediator, nor a servant that keepeth thee


off.
Say, Have mercy upon me, and presently God is with
thee. For while thou art yet a-speaking, saith he, I will

say, Behold, here I am, Isaiah Lviii. 9." And therefore he


biddeth us to " 134 mark the philosophy," as he termeth it,
or the wisdom of the " woman of Canaan. She entreateth
not James," saith he, " she beseecheth not John, neither
doth she come to Peter; but brake through the whole com-
pany of them, saying, I have no need of a mediator, but
taking repentance with me for a spokesman, I come to the
Fountain itself. For this cause did he descend, for this
cause did he take flesh, that I might have the boldness ta

speak unto him. I have no need of a mediator : have thou


mercy upon me." Hitherto St Chrysostom.
Sixthly, The Romanists repose such confidence in the
'ETT! fiev ydp Tiav dvQpu>iriav TOV
12

Trpo<ri6vTa Tivi KOL prjTopiKOV elvai XP*h Kai TrapevQv 0e<Js irapayiveTat' *En yct/o,
KCLL Ko\aKevo~ai TOUS irepl TOV apyovTa (^)T}(rt, XaXouJ/Tos <rou epw,
I8ov eya> irdp-
Trdi/Tas iKavov, KCLI TroXXct eTepa fTrivorj- eifii. Id. in Dimission. Chananasae, Tom.

<rat, uxrTe yeve<r6ai evirapdoeKTOV . ev- v. edit. Savil. p. 195.


34
TctvQa oe ovSevo? SelTai, dXXct yi/a>/^t;s Kctt opa yvvatKos <pi\o<To<piav' ov

/ioi/rjs I/JJ^OUO-TJS' KOL ovoev TO KU>\VOV irapaKoXel 'la/cto/Soi/, ou deeTai 'Icadvvov,


elvai eyyi/s TOV Qeov. Id. in Psal. iv. ov&& TrpovepyeTai HeTpw, a'XXa ^lere/ne
33
Oeos del eyyus etTTiv. edv OeXps TOV yppov' OVK ex 00 fJLfO'i'rov -)(peiavy

irapaKa\ecrai avdpcoirov, e/ocoTos T'I Troiel ;


aXXa Xaftovffa Trjv fjLCTavoiav <rvvr\yopov ,
KaOevoei, dff^oXelTai^ b ^laKovwv OVK diro- T\I TTtiyfj irpoaepypnaC Sid TOVTO

KpiveTai troi. t'Tri tie TOV 0eou oi>8ev TOV- tj, old TOVTO <rct/o/ca di/eXa/3ej/, 'iva
TO)V. OTTOV edv ct7reX0/s Kai >caXeo"7S, a.\f)(Q(o, &c. ou
aKovei. OVK d<To\ia, ov /e<riTj?, ov , eXe'tjadi/ pe. Ibid. p. 190.
400 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

intercession of the saints, that


they look to receive far greater
benefit by them than by their own prayers. Which conceit,
how distasteful it was unto the ancient doctors, St Chrysos-
tom may be a who laboured exceedingly
sufficient witness,
opinion, when it first began to
to root out this erroneous
shew itself in his time. And therefore he is bold to affirm,
not only that " 133 we have no such need of others that we
entreat them," but also, that God
" 136 then doeth
may by
most when we do not use the entreaty of others." For " as
a kind friend," saith he, " then blameth he us most, as not
daring to trust his love, when we entreat others to pray
unto him for us. Thus use we to do with those that seek
to us ; then we gratify them most, when
they come unto
us by themselves and not by others. But, thou wilt say,
what if I have offended him? Cease offending, and shed
tears, and so come, and thou shalt quickly make him appeased
for the things that are past. Say only, I have offended;
say it from thy soul and a sincere mind, and all is loosed.
Thou dost not so much desire thy sins to be forgiven thee,
as he doth desire to forgive thy sins unto thee." Thus
doth St Chrysostom write upon the l6th of the Acts; and
the fourth Thou mayest
Psalm to the same effect: " 137
upon
always and continually solicit him, and thou shalt meet
with no difficulty. For thou shalt have no need of any
door-keepers to bring thee in, nor stewards, nor procura-
tors, nor keepers, nor friends ; but when thou thyself comest

135
-fiij eTeptav delffdai, 'iva St eKeivcov d(pelvai <rov rd dfJ.apTijiu.aTa.
di<ocrr)s. Chrysost. in Acts xvi. Homil. Id. ibid.
137 'Ael
XXXVI. Kal Siyi/eKus evTvyyaveiv Svira-
136
OUTOS yap TOTC fidXurTa iroiel, <rai, Kal <>v<rKO\ia ovSeftia TrpotrearTtv.
OTav fit] erepuiv Serjdu)fj.ev. KaQdtrep <iX0s OVTC yap ~)(j)eia
T(Jav irpOffayovTcav Qvpta-
yvrfo-ios, TOTS fidXiarTa ijfilv ey/caXeT, w's pU)V, o'lKOVOfJiiaV) eTTlTpOTTCOV) <f>V\aK(OV, IJ

ov Qappovffiv avTov Trj <pL\la, OTO.V CTC- <pi\<av. aXX' OTav aiTos Si' eavTov frpo<r-

ptav ir/oos avTov SeriQUofiev TWV d%iovvT<av. eXftys, Tore fidXiffTa aKovaeTai <roi/,

ovToa Kal tjfieTs iroiovfJLev errl TU>V tjftas TOTC, OTav yujj^ei/os 5etj6^s. ou^ OUTOK
diovvTiov. TOTC fj.d\i<TTa ay-role x a ~ ovv avTov SvarooTTOvfiev Si CTeptav d^iovv-

/oio/ue6a, OTav di eavriav iifilv, Kal ov res, a5s 81 ij/mwv ai>TuJv. tirei^r; ydp TTJ?

Tr/ootriaxn. Ti ovv, <t>i}<riv, av epa <pi\ias, Kal Trdv-ra Troiel,


vKtos to ;
iravaai trpoa-Kpovcov T;/xas avTca Qappelv, OTOV t(5?/ Bi

Kal tidKpvaroV) Kal O'VTIO TT/ooaeXGe, /cat eavTtav TOVTO iroiovvras, TOTC /ictXio-Ta

Taxews CTTI TO!? TrpOTepoi? avrov 'iXecav OVTW Kal eirt T^S Xavaj/atos
'

Troitj'o-eis. eiTre fiovov, OTL TrpoareKpovva' Kal HeTpov fiev Kal


6i7re EK \f/v)(T}$ Kal yftjtTtos Siavoias, Kal eirevevarev'

trdwra XeXurat. OVK Be TavTtje, TO aiTtjQfu


eiriOy/xeTs
dfpeQfjvai <rv ras o/^a/oTtas trow, eo Id. in Psalm, iv.
IX.]
OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. 401

by thyself, then will he most of all hear thee, even then,


when thou entreatest no man. We do not therefore so
pacify him when we entreat him by others, as when we do
it
by our ownselves. For by reason he loveth our friend-
ship, and doth all things that we may put our confidence
in him, when he beholdeth us to do this by ourselves,
then doth he most yield unto our suits. Thus did he deal
with the woman of Canaan when Peter and James came :

for her, he did not yield but when she herself did remain, ;

he presently gave that which was desired."


The same lesson doth he repeat in his 44th Homily
" 138
our Lord being merciful doth not
upon Genesis, that
so yield when he is entreated for us by others, as he doth
when he by our ownselves;" and for proof thereof telleth
is

us again of the woman of Canaan, that " 139 having the

disciples petitioning for her, she could obtain nothing until


she by herself being instant drew forth the clemency of
the Lord ;" to the end we might thereby " learn, that we
do not so prevail when we entreat by others as when by
ourselves, if we come with fervour and with a vigilant mind."
The like observation is made by him and by Theophylact,
in their expositions upon that part of the Gospel wherein
this history is related: " 140 Mark me," saith the " how
one,
the apostles being put down and not prevailing, she herself

prevailed; of so great force is the assiduity of prayer: for


God would be petitioned unto by us that are guilty in our
own cause, rather than and " U1 observe,"
by others for us :"
saith the other, "
that although the saints do pray for us
as the apostles did for her, yet we praying for ourselves do

prevail much more." One place more I will yet lay down
9
'ETreuSr; yap (piXdvQpcoiros eerriv o TTJI/(piXavOpwiriav firetrirdcraro TOV $e-
ieO-TTUTrjS 6 tjfieT6/OO9, OLX OVTUi 6l' CTC- cnroTov. Id. ibid.
40
ptav TrapaKaXovfievos vTrep tj/uoii/ eirivevei, Zi> Se fJLOt vKOTTfi, irws T&V aVo<rro-
o nuwv avTtov.
Hi' Id. in. Gen. cap. l OVK dvvcrdvrto
xix. Homil. XLIV. TJvvtre' ToaovTov ecrTi TrpotreSpia eu^s. Kal
w
TauTtji/ Se Trdarav -rrjj/ la-Topiav eis ydp virep riiov r^ieTepiav Trap' TJ/MWI; ftov-
fieorov irapayayeiv r^vayKaaQr]fiev, 'Lva XeTat (jid\\ov TWV vTrev&vvtav diou<r6ai, >;
OTI ou) OVTU) di CTeptav irapa- irap' fTeputv uirep i}/j.tJav. Id. in Matt. XV.
fj.df)u)fjLei>,

KaXoui/Tes dvvofiev, aJ? auroi Si eavriJov, Homil. LII. edit. Grc. vel LIII. Latin.
141 OTI KO.V ayiot alTuxriv
eireiSdv fifrd Qep/jLOTrjTOS irpocriwfiev Kal "Srjfititatrai <5e,

Sieynyepnewni Siavolas. Ldov ydp VTrep rjutoi/, a)'<nre/t> virtp c/ceti/rj? ol airo-

Kal TOUS /ia0t)Tas e\ovtra virep (TToXot, a'XX' ovv tj/uct v-irep eawrtav
wcff-reuoi/ras ovSev ir\eov dvvtrat fj
alrovvrev ir\eov dvvouev. Theophylacf.
ue\pti ore au-rt) it' fav-rrj? irapa/mfivaara in Matt. cap. xv.
CC
402 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

out of Chrysostom's Sermon of the Profiting of the Gospel,


and so make an end of this observation : " 142 With God,"
" thou hast need of no much
saith he, intercessors, nor of
running about, nor to flatter others; but although thou be
alone and hast no patron, thou by thyself praying unto
God shalt
certainly obtain thy request. He useth not to
yield so soon being prayed unto by others for us, as when
we ourselves do pray unto him, although we be replenished
with a thousand evils." And to prove that " 113 praying by
our ownselves we prevail more with God than praying unto
him by others," he bringeth in again the history of the
woman of Canaan, and wisheth us to observe, " 144 how when
others entreated he put her back, but when she herself cried
out praying for the gift, he yielded;" and at last concludeth
" 145
with this exhortation Seeing then we have learned all
:

these things, although we be in sin and unworthy to receive,


let us not despair, knowing that by perseverance and con-
stancy of mind we may obtain our request ; although we
be solitary and without patrons, let us not be discouraged,
knowing that this is a great patronage, that thou by thine
ownself mayest come to God with much alacrity.
Seventhly, and principally, it is to be considered, that
invocation is attributed unto the saints in the Church of
Rome as a part of the worship due unto them; yea, as
eximium adorationis genus, for so doth 146 Cardinal Bel-
larmine pronounce it to be, " an eminent kind of adoration."
For " 147 we do not honour the saints," saith Azorius the

eirt TOV Qeov, Xovv, ^LeKpoixraTo' OTC oe avTy rj

OVOe TTOXX^S T7JS TTfpiSpO/JiTJS, Kal TOV KO- TT?S oto/oeae efioijcrev, eirevevcre. Ib. p. 417-
aXXa 145
\a.Kev<rai ere/oovs* KO.V epr^io^ r;s, TO.VT' ovv airavTa. /zaOoi/Tes, KO.V
KO.V dirpocTTCLTevTOSj CCUTOS oid crawrov ev d/J.apTtjfJLa(TLV Hofievj Kal TOV \afjelv dv-
-TfapecKaXetras TOV Qeov eiriTev^ri Travrws. dioi, firj diroyiVWffKajfjLev, eicoTes OTI Ty
ou) ovTto di Tepu)v virep tj^iwj/ Tra.pa.Ka.- Trporredpia T^S i^i/x^s 6uvij<royu.e6a yeve-
Xou/xej/os eiriveufLV etoaQev, as 01' r;/uu>i/
<rQai T^S aiTtjo-ecos dj*toi' KO.V dTrpocrTa-
auTtav TWV deofievcav, KO.V fivpicov tafiev TCVTOI Kal eprjfJLOi cJyuev, /HTJ aTrayopevta-
ye/zoi/Tes Kaitiov. Chrysost. Serm. in fiev, eidoTCi OTI /leyoXr; Trpo<rTa<ria, TO
Philip, i. 18, de profectu Evangel. Tom. UVTOV oi eavTov Trpo<re\6elv TU> Qew /uera
v. p. 416, edit. Savil. TrpoGv/jLias TroXA^s. Ibid.
143 ' 146
At' t}fJL<Jav avTwv /uaXXov n & L '^Teptav Bellarmin. Praefat. in Controvers.
TrapaKoXov/JLevo^ o 9eos eirivevei. Ibid, de Eccles. Triumphant, in Ordine Dis-
p. 416, et paullo post : BouXet naQelv KOI putat.
147 Sanctos non solum honoramus eo
OTI Si avTwv /zoXXov t;
ijfjLwv di eTcpiuv
rapaKoXovvTes CIVTOV dvvop.ev ; p. 418. cultu, quo viros virtute, sapientia, po-
144
ET5es TTWS, ore fj.ev eKCivoi irapeKa- tentia, aut qualibet alia dignitate prae-
OF PRAYER TO SAIKTS. 403

" with
that worship only wherewith we do men that
Jesuit,
excel wisdom, power, or any other dignity, but
in virtue,
also with DIVINE worship and honour, which is an act of

religion; for that worship which is given to men of excel-


lency is an act and office not of religion, but of other inferior
virtue, which is called observance." And whereas it is as
clear as the noon-day that the giving of divine honour and
worship unto any creature is flat idolatry, the poor man
weeneth that he and his fellows may be excused from being
" do not
idolaters, because they give divine worship and
honour unto the saints for themselves, but for God who hath
made them saints;" as if God, who cannot endure that his
l *8
glory should be given unto another, would be mocked
with such toys as these. Indeed they were wont heretofore
to delude men commonly with an idle distinction of u *Dulia
and Latria; but now " it is the
150
opinion of the most and
the wisest of them, that it is one and the selfsame virtue of

religion which containeth both Latria and Dulia." Whereas


it hath been the constant doctrine of the ancient Church,
that all
religious worship, whereof prayer by the judgment
151
of men, as well
all heathen as Christian, hath been always
esteemed to be an especial part, is so properly due unto God
alone, that without committing of idolatry it cannot be com-
municated unto any creature. For " 152 in the Catholic
Church it is divinely and singularly delivered, that no
creature is to be worshipped by the soul, but he only who
is the Creator of all things," saith St Augustine. And
161
stantes, sed etiam divino cultu et honore, Virgil. ^Eneid. in. Junonis mag-
qui est religionis actus. Nam ille cultus nae primum precenumen adora. Ovid.
qui viris primariis defertur non est reli- Trist. lib. i. Eleg. in. Hac prece ado-
gionis, sed alterius longe inferioris virtu- ra vi superos ego, pluribus uxor. Dona-
tis, quae observantia vocatur, actus et offi- tus in Terentii Phormion. Act. 11. seen.
cium. Sed divinos cultus et honores sanc- 1, ad illud, At ego Deos penateis hinc
tis non damus propter ipsos sed propter
; salutatum domum Devortar. Salutatum]
Deum, qui eos sanctos effecit. Jo. Azor. Adoratum prima post reditum prece.
Institut. Moral. Tom. I. lib. ix. cap. 16.
152
148
Isaiah xLii. 8, and xLviii. 11. Ideoque divine ac singulariter in
149 ecclesia Catholica traditur, nullani crea-
Clem. Constitut. lib. iii. cap. 7.
turam colendam esse aninue (libentius
'Avri rov Oeow \arpevei rip Ma/ucoi/a,
enim loquor his verbis quibus mini haec
Tovre&ri, oovXevei rip Kepdei.
150 insinuata sunt) sed ipsum tantummodo
Quid si et una religionis virtus sit,
latriam duliamque contineat
rerum quae sunt omnium creatorem. Au-
qua ? Certe
plurimis atque sapientissimis ea est opi- gustin. lib. de Quantitate Animae, cap. 34.
nio. Nicol. Serarius, in Litaneutico ii. Vide eund. de Morib. Eccles. Catholics?,
xxvu. in fine.
et Manich. lib. i. cap. 30.
Quaest.
CC2
404 ANSWEB. TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

therefore the ancient doctors,who thought it not amiss that


men should recommend themselves unto the prayers of the
saints departed, held it a thing intolerable, notwithstanding,
to impart unto any man or angel the worship of invocation :
for to request the help of the prayers of our fellow-servants
isone thing, and to worship them with the service of invo-
cationis another ; as may be seen in the case of our brethren

upon earth, who may not refuse the former without the vio-
lation of charity, nor accept the latter at our hands without
an open breach of piety.
Now, that the Fathers judged no otherwise of prayer
than as hath been said, this may be one good argument,
that when they define it, they do it with express reference
to God, and no other; as may be seen in those five several
153
definitions thereof which Bellarmine himself repeateth
out of them: the first whereof is that of Basil: " 154 Prayer
is a
request of some good thing which is made by pious
men unto GOD." The second, of Gregory Nyssen " 155 Prayer :

is a
" a conference with GOD." The
conversing" or third,
of the same Father " 156
Prayer is a request of good things,
:

which is offered with supplication unto GOD." The fourth,


of John Chrysostom " 157 " dis-
Prayer is a colloquy" or
:

course with GOD." The fifth, of John Damascen : " 158


Prayer
is an ascension of the mind unto GOD, or a request of things
that are fit from GOD." Whereunto the order set down
by the Fathers of the Council of Carthage may be added,
M 159 That none in their
prayers should direct their speech
unto any but the Father." And therefore, where 160 the
158 Vide ejusd. de Orando Deum,
Bellarmin. de Bonis Operib. in par- lib. i.

ticular, lib. i.
cap. 1. Tom. vi. p. 754, edit. Savil.
154 iarTiv
158
n/ootrei/X'i e<mv aj/uj8a(ris TOV 'vov
Upovevxy atTTjeris dyaQov
Beoi/, aiTTj(rts TWV trpotrriKovToav
Trapd Ttov evcrefitav els Qeov yii/ofie'j/rj.
Tryxjs )

irapd Qeov. Damascen. de Fide Ortho-


Basil. Orat. in Julitiam Martyr.
dox, cap. 24.
lib. iii.
155 Qeou
rLooo-eux'J cr/uXta. Gregor. 169
Ut nullus in precibus nisi ad patrem
Nyssen. Orat. i. de Oratione.
dirigat orationem. Fulgent. Ferrand. in
156
n/oo(reix>7 euTt)<ris dyaQtav, fief)' Breviat. Canon, sect. 219, ex Concil.
Mce-rtj/otas Trpoarayofnevr] Qeia. Id. Orat.
Carthag. tit. 31.
ii. de Orat. Dominic, vel, Upoo-evxn 160
Ad quod sacrificium, sicut homines
uceTrjpia eaTiv TrepL TWOS Ttav avf.L<pep6v- Dei, mundum in ejus confessione
qui
TCOV irpoaayofjievri 9e<5. Id. Tractat. n.
vicerunt, suo loco et ordine nominantur;
de Inscriptionib. Psalmor. cap. 3.
non tarn en a sacerdote, qui sacrificat, in-
157 'H TOV vocantur. Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. xxii.
ixr/ <5iaXet e<rri TT/OOS
Geov. Chrysost. in Gen. Homil. xxx. cap. 10.
K.J OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. 405

names of the martyrs were solemnly rehearsed in the public


Liturgy of the Church, St Augustine interpreteth it to be
done for an honourable remembrance of them, but utterly
denieth that the Church therein had any intention to invo-
cate them. So for other " 161 Thou alone
particular prayers :

art to be invocated, O Lord," saith St Ambrose in his


Funeral Oration Theodosius the " thou
upon Emperor ;

art to be requested to supply the miss of him in his sons."


u 162
To whom else should I cry besides thee?" saith
And,
St Augustine ; and it is God's pleasure,
Esse nihil prorsus se praeter ubique rogandum,

" That
nothing beside himself should everywhere be prayed
unto," saith Dracontius in his Book of the Creation, revised
by Eugenius, Bishop of Toledo, at the command of Chin-
dasuindus, King of Spain. In Nicetas Serronius's Catena
upon the Psalms, not yet printed, one of the Greek doctors
maketh this observation upon that place of the fifth Psalm,
Attend unto the voice of my petition, my King and my
God: for unto thee will 1 pray, that 163 the petition is here
presented as to a King, but the prayer as to God. For
" unto God ALONE do we From whence
pray," saith he.
that also doth not much differ, which we read in the Catena
translated into Latin by Daniel Barbarus only where it is ;

there said that " 164


is offered God ALONE," the
to
prayer
translator or the publisher of that work giveth us warning
in the margin, " that we should
165
understand this well."
But how it
may be so understood that praying to saints
may well stand with it, this he leaveth to the favourable
construction of the gentle and to save that pains reader;
too, Aloysius Hippomanus, Catena, thought it best in his
to break off that link of the chain, and not to trouble his
reader with it at all. St Chrysostom, unto whom, in the
Chain set out by Barbarus, this sentence is assigned, upon
181
Sed tamen tu solus, Domine, invo- o5s Geoi. fj.6vca yap TO>
candus es ; tu rogandus, ut eum in filiis Geoi Trpo<r6vx6/j.e6a. Nicet. Caten. in

repraesentes. Ambros. de Obitu Theo- Psalm V. 3. II/DoVxcs TTJ (froavfj TT)S <5e-
dos. ?j'(Teo)s /iou, o /SacriXeus /JLOV /cot o 9eo?
189
Cui alteri praeter te clamabo ? Au- fiovy OTI irpds <re Trpotrcujrofjiai.
164
gust. Confess, lib. i.
cap. 5.
Oratio enim soli Deo offertur. Au-
63 rea Catena in L. Psalmos,
n^offdyei TJJJ/ fikv oeTjtriv cos /SatriXet" edit. Venet.
Serrai yap TIS TOU /BacrtXcu)?, 'iva TO. evSe- ann. 1569, p. 53.
185
ov-ra (TOUTCO-TI TO. \eiiroirra) X'/3}' TY\V Benc intelligas.
406 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

those words of the Apostle, 1 Cor. i. 2, With all that call


upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giveth the like
" 166 Not of this man and that
exposition: man, but upon
the name of the Lord." And he elsewhere telleth us, that
itwas the DEVIL'S doing to draw men unto the calling upon
angels, as envying them the honour of their immediate access
and admittance unto God's own presence " 167 For this :

" did the devil bring in this of the angels,


cause," saith he,
envying us this honour. These be the enchantments of
devils though he be an angel, though an archangel, though
:

they be cherubims, endure it not. For neither will these


powers themselves admit it, but reject it, when they see
their Lord dishonoured. I have honoured thee, saith he, and
have said, Call upon me ; and dost thou dishonour him ?"
Therefore did the Fathers in the Council of Laodicea
directly conclude, that this invocation of angels was a secret
kind of idolatry, by the practice whereof the communion
168
both of Christ and of his Church was forsaken. For
" "
ought not to forsake the Church
Christians," say they,
of God, and depart aside, and invocate angels, and make
meetings, which are things forbidden. If any man there-
fore be found to give himself to this privy idolatry, let
him be accursed, because he hath forsaken our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, and betaken himself to idolatry."
Pope Adrian, in the epitome of the Canons which he deli-
vered to Charles the Great at Rome, in the year of our
Lord 773, doth thus abridge this decree Ut anathema sit, :

quicunque, relicta ecclesia, angelos colere vel congregationes


" That whosoever
facer e prcesumpserit, leaving the Church,
did presume to worship angels or to make meetings, should

166 Ou TOV et>o Kal TOV Selves, dXXd ei X/oton-iai/ous

TO ovo/j.a TOV Kvpiov. Chrysost. in 1 TOV Qeov, Kal


ireiv TIJV eK/cXtjo-tai/

Cor. Homil. I. Kal ayyeXows ovofid^eiv Kal


167 Aid TavTa 6 ia'/3oXos TCC TU>V dy- elV avep dirrjyo/oeuTat. Et TIS ovv ev~
yeXcoi/ eTrei<TJ]yaye, ftavKaivcov ij/zTi/ T//S TO.VTTI Trj [ceKpvfJLfj.vyeiS(a\o\aTpeia

TI/H77S. TU>V Saifiovwv TOiavTai al eTrw&'at. ;,


ecrra) dvdQefna, OTI ey/care-
Kav ayyeXos ij, KOLV dpxdyye\os, KO.V TO. Xnre TOV Kvpiov q/ntav 'lya-ouv Xpia-Tov,
XepovfllfJi, /u*j dve'xpv. erret ovSe avTai ai TOV vlov TOV Qeov, Kal eiSw\o\aTpeict
SvvdfJLCis Kara8eovTat., d\\d Kal aTroo-ei- irpo(rfj\Qv. Concil. Laodicen. Canon.
(TOVTat, OTO.V 'iS(O<Tl TOV SetTTTOTrjV dTL/JLtt- xxxv. Non oportet Christianos, &c.
^ofievov. 'EyaJ ire eTi^irjo-a, <t}<rt, icai
(ut infr. p. 407, in marg.) Concil. MSS.
eltrov, 'Ejn KaXet, KOI <rv ctTijua'^eis av- in Bibliotheca Regia et Cottoniana.
TOV ; Id. in Coloss. iii. Homil. ix.
IX.] OF PRAYER TO AINTS. 407

be accursed." Canisius, who was the first


Where Henricus
publisher of this Abridgment, in the sixth tome of his
Ancient Reading, fearing belike that the curse not only of
the Fathers of Laodicea, but, which was more dreadful, of
Pope Adrian might light upon him and his companions,
also,
who acknowledge themselves to be of the number of those
that " worship angels," giveth us warning in his margin,
that instead of angelos here "
I69
perad venture should be
read angulos" that is to say, corners instead of angels ;
which although it be a note that evil beseemeth a man who
would be thought to be conversant in Ancient Reading,
and such a one especially as professeth himself to be a
" chief
professor of the Canons," yet in that he leaveth
the text untouched, and contenteth himself with a perad-
venture too in his marginal annotation, he is more to be
excused than his fellows before him, Carranza, Sagittarius,
and Joverius, who, setting forth the Canons of the Councils,
without all peradventure corrupted the text itself, removing
the angels out of their place and hiding them in corners.

Notwithstanding this also may be alleged in some part


of their excuse too, that they were not the first authors of
this corruption of the Canon that blame must light either :

upon Isidorus Mercator, the crafty merchant with whose


170
dealings I acquainted you before, or upon James Merlin,
171
the Popish doctor, who first caused his collection of
decrees to be printed. But Friar Crabbe deserveth no
excuse at all ; who, having store of good copies to direct

him, did not only content himself with the retaining of


angulos in the text of Isidorus, as he found it printed before
172
him, but plucked out angelos and chopped in angulos
into the old translation of Dionysius Exiguus also, which
afforded no room for any such corners as these. For how-
soever in that version, or perversion rather, of the Canon
which is extant in the text of Isidorus, it might stand with
some reason to read, Non oportet Christianas, derelicta

189
Angulos forte legendum, p. 424,
172 Tom. i. Concil. edit. Colon, ann.
Tom. vi. Antiques Lectionis Henr. 1538.

Canisii, SS. Canonum in Academ. In- 178 In MS. Bibliotheca; Regiae, et

golstad. Professoris primarii. altero Cottoniano, ita legitur : Non opor-


170 tet Christianos, ecclesia Dei
Supra p. 12. relicta, abire
Tom. atque angelos nominare
171 et congregatione?
i. Concil. edit. Colon, ann.
1530, et Paris, ann. 1535. facere; quae interdicta noscuntur. Si
408 ANSWEE TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

ecclesia, abire etad angulos idololatrice abominandce congre-


" It is not lawful for
gationes facere, Christians, forsaking
the Church, to go and make assemblies of abominable ido-

latry in corners ;" yet in the old translation of Dionysius,


where the Canon was rightly rendered, Quod non oporteat
ecclesiam Dei relinquere et abire, atque angelos nominare,
et congregationes facer e, it was contrary to all sense to
thrust this reading upon us, "It is not lawful for Christians
to forsake the Church of God, and go and nominate'" or
" invocate " and make
CORNERS," a wise speech, no doubt,
meetings."
But veritas non qucerit angulos, " the truth will admit
of none of these corners." For the Greek verity, as well
in all the editions of the Canons that have come forth by

themselves, as in the collections of Harmenopulus, Zonaras,


and Balsamon likewise, expressly readeth dyyeXovs, which
in that tongue hath no affinity at all with corners; and the
174
ancient collectors of the Canons among the Latins, Cres-
conius and Dionysius and K5 Fulgentius Ferrandus, have
angelos; and Theodoret, in his exposition of the Epistle
to the Colossians, doth twice make mention and declare
the meaning of this Canon once, upon those words of the
:

Apostle in the third chapter, Whatsoever ye do in word or


deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
176
to God and the Father by him: For "because they
commanded men to saith
" he
worship angels," Theodoret,
enjoineth the contrary, that they should adorn their words
and their deeds with the commemoration of our Lord Christ,
and send up thanksgiving to God and the Father by him,"
" and not The Synod of Laodicea
saith he, by the angels.
also following this rule, and desiring to heal that old disease,

quis igitur inventus fuerit huic occul- Xous <re/3etv e/ce\euov, OUTOS TO evavriov
tse idololatriae anathema ;
serviens, sit
irapeyyva, UHTTE TOUS Xoyous icai
/cat

quia dereliquit dominum nostrum Jesum TO. epya KO(r/j.fjcrai. Ty fJLvrjfJiri TOV <5eo-7ro-
Christum Filium Dei, et se idololatrize TOV X/OKTT-OU* /cat TO) 0eu> 8e /cat iraT/ot
tradidit. TI}V evyapiarTiav dt O.VTOV, <f>rj(riv, dva-
174 De his qui angelos colunt. Cres- trj did T>V dyye\(av. TovTta
con. Breviar. Canon, sect. 90. Dionys. Tea vofiio /cat tj ev Aao5t/ceta trvv-

Exig. in Codice Canonum, num. 138. o^os, /cat TO Trakaiov e/ceti/o TraOos Qepa-

angelos congregation em
175 Ut nullus ad ~
irevcfai fiovKofievr], evo/jLoQe-rrjcre /ijj i>x e
TOV
facial. Fulgent. Ferrand. Breviat. Ca- <rQai dyye\ois, fitj^e Ka.Ta.\tfnrdveiv
non, sect. 184. Kuptov i}fiwv 'Iqtrovv X/)KTTOI/. Theodoret.
'*
'Eiretorj ydp fKelvoL airrovs a'yye- in Coloss. iii.
IX.] OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. 409

made a law that they should not pray unto angels, nor for-
sake our Lord Jesus Christ." And again, upon the second
of the same " 177 This vice continued in
chapter Epistle:
Phrygia and Pisidia for a long time; for which cause also
the Synod assembled in Laodicea, the chief city of Phrygia,
forbad them by a law to pray unto angels. And even to
this day
among them and their borderers there are oratories
of St Michael to be seen." The like hath (Ecumenius after
him, upon same place: " 178 This custom continued in
the

Phrygia, insomuch that the Council of Laodicea did by a


law forbid to come unto angels and to pray unto them.
From whence it is also, that there be many churches of
Michael, the chief captain of God's host, among them."
This Canon of the Laodicean Fathers Photius doth note
to have been made against the 179 Angelites, or the Angelics
rather : for so doth St Augustine name those heretics that
were " 180
inclined to the worship of angels;" being from
tc lsl
thence called Angelici," as Isidorus noteth, "because
they did worship angels."
To transcribe here at large the several testimonies of the
Fathers which condemn this worshipping of angels, or any
other creature whatsoever, would be an endless work. Gre-
gory Nyssen in the beginning of his fourth, or fifth book rather,
against Eunomius, layeth this down for an undoubted prin-
182 "
That none of those things which have their being
:
ciple
by creation is to be
worshipped by men, the word of God
hath by law ordained ; as almost out of all the holy Scrip-
ture we may learn. Moses, the Tables, the Law, the Pro-

Hepl 'AyyeXiTtov Phot. Nomoca-


177 179
"TStfJLCtve oe TOVTO TO irct6os ev TTJ

4>puyia Kai Hi<ri&ia fie^pt iroXXou* ov non. tit.12. cap. 9.

Si) "Xfipiv KC" *? <rvve\6ov<ra truvoo'os ev Aa- iso


Angelici, in angelorum cultu incli-
ociKcta Trj? $pvyias, vofjuo KCKwXvKe TO nati. Augustin. de Hares, cap. 39.
181
TOIS ayye'Xois Trpoorev^fo-Qai. /cat fiexpt Angelici vocati, quia angelos co-
e TOV vvv evKrripia TOV dyiov Mi)(arjX lunt. Isidor. Origen. lib. viii. cap. 5.
188
trap' exeti/ots Kai TOIS 6/io/oois eKeivtov Ovoev Toil/ Std *CTt<reo)s yeyovoTtav
earTiv i<5etv. Id. in Coloss. ii. <refld<Tfjiiov elvai TO!S ai/0/oaiirots, 6
178 TOVTO Karrd &pvyiav TO
"Ep.eive 8e J/o/no06TTj(re Xoyos, cos e/c Trao-rjs

I0OS, cos Kai TTJV ev AaootKeia avvodov Selv earTi T^S QeoTrvevaTov ypat^rj^ TO TOI-
vofjito Ku)\v(rai TO irpoaievai ayyeXois KOI OVTO fj-aQelv' 6 Mcouo-rjs, al TrXd/ces, o

vpoarev^ecrQai. ov Kai vaoi Trap' av-


d(f>' j/o/xos, ol Ka0e^s
ir/oo^^Tai, TCC evayye-
ToTs TOU dp\itr-rpa-n'\yov Mi^atiX iroXXoi. Xta, Ttav OTTOO'ToXcoi' Ta SoyfjiaTa TrdvT(ov t

(Ecumen. MSS. in Coloss. ii. ab Hcesche- ciri(r>)s dirayopevovo'i TO Trpos Ttjv KT'KTIV
lio citatus in notis ad Origenis libros con- fiXeireiv. Gregor. Nyssen. contr. Eunom.
tra Celsum, p. 483. Orat. iv. Tom, n. edit. Graeco-Lat.p.144,
410 ANSWER TO A JESUIT** CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

phets afterward, the Gospels, the determinations of all the


Apostles, do equally forbid the looking unto the creature."
Then having shewed that the neglect of this was the cause
of the bringing in of a multitude of gods among the heathen ;
" 183 lest the same
things should happen unto us," saith
" who are instructed
he, by the Scripture to look unto the
true Deity, we are taught to understand, that whatsoever
is a different thing from the Divine nature, and
created is

that we are to worship and adore that nature only which


is uncreated; whose character and mark is, that it neither

at any time began to be, nor ever shall cease to be." But
our Romanists have long since overthrown this principle,
and so and the Tables, and the Law, that
altered Moses,
184
of the twenty-four mortal sins, whereby they say the first
commandment is broken, they reckon the first to be com-
mitted by him,

Qui colit extra Deum vel sanctos quodque creatum,


" who
worshippeth any created thing beside God and the
saints." And whereas 185 Antonius in his Melissa had set
down the aforesaid sentence of Nyssen, that " we have
learned to worship and adore that nature ONLY which is
uncreated ;" the Spanish Inquisitors have taken order that
a piece of his tongue should be cut off, and given com-
mandment that " 186 the word ONLY should be blotted out"
of his writing; not considering that this was the principal
word upon which the whole sentence of Nyssen mainly did
depend, and that Nyssen was not the only man that had
taught us this lesson.
Athanasius before him had used the very same argument
against the Arians, to prove that the Son of God was of
an uncreated nature 187
for " Peter the saith he,
:
Apostle,"
183 188
'Qs av ovv /XT)
Tavrd TrdQoifiev /cat DeleaturdictiosoLUMMODO. Index
rjjuets ol TT/OOS Trjv aXtjOivjii/ OeorrjTa /3Xe- Expurgator. Gasp. Quirogae Cardinalis
jreti* irapd TT/S ypcKfrrjs SidaarKo/nevoi, TTO.V jussu editus, de consilio Supremi Senatus
TO KTIGTOV eia T7J<s 0eicts (pvaeoos voeiv Generalis Inquisit. Madrid, ann. 1584.
187
tTrai&ev6t)fJLfv, fnovrjv di- Tr\v CLKTIVTOV IleT/oos p.ev ovv o aTroo-ToXos irpocr-

ipvcriv XaTpeveiv -re /cat cre/3a'ecr0ai, tjs Kvvfjaat 0eXoi/Trt TOV KopvrjXiov K(a\vei,
earn /cat yvwpia-fjia TO fJUjTe \eytav, OTI Kayia dvdpwjros eifjii. ayyeXos
TO eli/at ITOTC /ut/Te irauearQai de QeXovTo. irpoa-Kwrjarat. TOV 'Iiodvvrjv
elvai. Id. ibid. p. 146. ev Trj diroKaXvij/ei /ca>Xuet, Xeycoi/, &c.
184
Hieronym. Zanetinus, de foro Con- OVKOVV Qeov ecrTi (JLOVOV TO Trpoa-Kvvel-
scientiae et Contentioso, sect. 168. arQai. Kai TOVTO tcracri Kai O.UTOI ol ayye-
IBS Kav TWV aXXwj; rais W^ats virep-
Anton. Meliss. lib. i. Serm. i. Xot, OTI
IX.] OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. 411

" did forbid


Cornelius, when he would have worshipped
him, saying, Because I myself also am a man. Acts x. 26.
The angel also did forbid John, when he would have wor-
shipped him in the Revelation, saying, See thou do it not;
for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the pro-
phets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book:
worship God, Rev. xxii. 9. Wherefore it appertained! to
God only to be worshipped. this do the angels them- And
selves know well, that although
they do surpass others in
glory, yet they are all but creatures, and are in the number,
not of those that are to be adored, but of them that adore
the Lord." So we have heard St Ambrose 188 before repre-
" that do adore their fellow-servants." And
hending those
Epiphanius, refuting the heresy of the Collyridians, con-
" 189 neither
cludeth, that Elias, nor John, nor Thecla, nor
any of the saints, is to be worshipped. For that ancient
" shall not prevail over us,
error," saith he, to forsake the

living God and


to worship the things that are made
by
him ; they served
for and worshipped the creature above
the Creator, and became fools. For if he will not have
the angels to be worshipped, how much more would he not
have her that was born of Anna?" 190 Let "Mary," then,
be had " in honour," but let " the Lord be worshipped."
Lastly, St Augustine, to omit all others, in the book which
he wrote of True Religion, delivereth this for one of the
main grounds thereof, that " 191 the worshipping of men that
are dead should be no part of our religion ; because," saith
"
he, if
they did live piously, they are not held to be such
as would seek that kind of honour, but would have him
to be worshipped of us, by whose enlightening they do

,
dXXd KTifffjiaTa jrdi/Tfs elari, KOI Xous Trpo<TKVvel<rdai ov deXet, iroorta fid\\ov
OVK eiai TWV irpocrKvvovfievwv, dXXd Ttav Ti/V diro "Awy? yeyevvnfievnv ; Epiphan.
Athanas. Haeres. LXXIX. p. 448.
Orat. in. contra Arian. w 'H
Mapta ev Tt/j.fj, o Kupios irpoir-
188
Ambros. in Rom. cap. i. supra p. 397. Kui/eTo-00). Id. ibid. p. 450.
191
189
'AXX' OUT6 'HXtCtS 7iy>0<r/CVl/TJT6s, Non sit nobis religio cultus homi-
Kaitrep ev oi<rti/ tov, ou-re 'Iwcti/VTjs Trpocr- num mortuorum quia si ; pie vixerunt,
KWIJTOS, &c. dXX' oi/Te rj GexXct, OVTC non habentur ut tales quasrant hono-
sic

T<S Tiav dyitav irpovKweiTai. Ov yap res sed ilium a nobis coli volunt,
;
quo
rifiSiV
TJ dp\aia ir\dvr], KaTa- illuminante lactantur meriti sui nos esse
TOV "<avra, Kal irpofficvvelv TO. consortes. Honorandi ergo sunt propter
UTT* avTov yeyovoTa' eKaTpevaav yap Kal imitationem, non adorandi propter reli-
c<Te/3d<r0tj<ray TJJ KTiaei irapd TOV KT'L- gionem. August, de Vera Relig. cap,
<rai/T, xai efJLWpdvQ^aav, Et yap dyyt- 55.
412 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [cHAP.

rejoice that we are made partners of their merit. They are


to be honoured therefore for imitation, not to be adored
for religion." The same doth he also there say of angels,
that " 192 we do honour them with love, not with service;
neither do we build temples unto them. For it is not their
desire that they should be so honoured by us, because they
know that we ourselves, if we be good, are the temples
of the high God; and therefore it is rightly written, that
a man was forbidden by an angel that he should not worship
him, but God alone, under whom he was his fellow-servant,
Rev. xxii. 9-"
But what saith Cardinal Bellarmine now, think you, unto
these testimonies of the Fathers? " 193 I saith not say," he,

knowing indeed what he saith, nor whereof he affirmeth,


" that they speak against the errors of the Gentiles, who
of wicked men did make true gods, and did offer sacrifices
unto them." Wherein you may discern the just hand of
God, confounding the man's wits that would thus abuse his
learning to the upholding of idolatry. For had he been
here his own man, and not been strangely overtaken with
the spirit of slumber, he could not possibly have failed so

foully as to reckon the angels and the saints, and the very
mother of God herself, of whom these Fathers do expressly

speak, in the number of those wicked persons whom the


Gentiles did take for their gods. And here also, out of
Epiphanius, we may further observe who were the masters,
or the mistresses for this was " 194
the women's
rather,

heresy," from whom our Romanists did first learn their

Hyperdulia, or that transcendent kind of service wherewith


they worship the Virgin Mary, namely, the Collyridians,
195
so called from the collyrides, or cakes, which at a cer-
192
Quare honoramus eos caritate, non deos faciebant, eisque sacrificia offere-
servitute; nee eis templa construimus. bant. Bellarm. de Eccles. Triumphant,
Nolunt enim se sic honorari a nobis, quia lib. i. fine cap. 14, collat. cum fine

nos ipsos, cum boni sumus, templa summi cap. 11.


194 <jj
Dei esse noverunt. Recte itaque scribi- rfwv yvva.LK.uiv aipeo-is. Epiphan.
tur hominem ab angelo prohibitum ne se Haeres. LXXIX. p. 445. OVTOL yap oi
unum Deum, sub quo ei esset TOVTO SidciffKovres Tives elirlv, ccXA.'
adoraret, sed
r}

et ille conservus. Id. ibid. Id. in Psal. yvvcuK.e<s ;


Ibid. p. 446.
195
cxxxv. negat ministerium vel servitium Id. in Anacephalaeosi, p. 529 : Ko\-
vocabulum enim ibi ad-
religionis, quae Graece liturgia vel latria \vpiStavol (hoc
oi els ovofjia TJJS Ma/oiccs ev tj-
dicitur, sanctis angelis exhiberi debere. dendum)
193
Dico eos loqui contra errores genti- /iepu TOV eTous Tivi diroTeTayfJLevri KO\-
lium qui ex hominibus sceleratis veros oi?
OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. 413

tain time of the year they used to offer unto the blessed
Virgin; against whom Epiphanius doth thus oppose himself:
" 1% What
Scripture hath delivered any thing concerning
this? of the Prophets have permitted a man to be
Which
worshipped, that I may not say a woman? For a choice
vessel she is indeed, but yet a woman." " 197 Let Mary be
in honour, but let the Father and the Son and the Holy
Ghost be worshipped let no man worship Mary. : This
is appointed, I do not say for a woman, nor yet
mystery
for a man neither, but for God: the angels themselves are
not capable of such kind of glorifying." " 198 Let none eat
of this error
touching holy Mary for although the tree :

be beautiful, yet is it not for meat ; and although Mary


be most excellent, and holy, and to be honoured, yet she
" 199
The
is not to be
worshipped." body of Mary was holy
indeed, God. The Virgin indeed was a virgin
but not
and honourable, but not given unto us for adoration, but
one that did herself worship him who was born of her in
the flesh, and came from heaven out of the bosom of his
Father."
Thus did this learned Father labour to " 200
cut the roots
of this idolatrous heresy," when began to take hold it first

of the feminine sex, animating all that were of masculine


" 201 Go
spirits to the extirpation thereof, in this manner :
to then, ye servants of God; let us put on a manlike mind,
and beat down the madness of these women." But when
this disease afterwards had gotten a farther spread, and had
once thoroughly seized upon men as well as women, it is

fieQa ovofj.0. TTJ irpdfcei avTuiv a'/coXouOov, Kal wpalov TO %v\ov, dXX' OVK

KoXXi/jOio'iai/ous auToi/s 6vop.dcravTe<i. Kal el jcaXXiorrj t) Ma/oia, Kai dyia, Kal


98 OVK TO
Hoia Se TIS ypa(prj 5iTjy?j(raTo irepl TCTifj.rjiJ.evr]) a'XX' eis irpocrKvuei-
TOUTOW ;
TTOlOS TTpO(pr]T(OV 6TT6Tpe\l/eV O.V- a-Qat. Id. ibid.
>9
SptaTrov irpoffKvvelcrv'ai, ov /j.tjv yvvaiKa Nat p.r}v ayiov rjv TO <rw/j.a TJ~,<I

\eyeai efcaipeTov p.kv yap eo-ri TO <r/cei;os,


; Ma/uias, ou p.r]v Bee's, i/ai ok ira/oflej/os r\v

a'XXa ywri. Id. Haeres. LXXIX. p. 448. TJ TrapQevo<i Kal TeTi/zjjjue'i/rj, a'XX' OVK eis
197 'Ej;
Ti/nrj e<TTco Ma/oict, 6 Se iraTrjp TTpoa'Kvvrja'iv r'lfjilv SoQeftra, a'XXa irpoor-
Kal vlos Kai ayiov irvevfia irpoarKvveiaQto' Kvvovcra TQV e^ auT^s aapKt yeyevvrj-
TTJJ;Maptai/ [Models irpocrKweiTca. Ou fievov, OTTO ovpavwv ok e/c KoXirwv TraTpta-

Xeyco yvvaiKL, aXX* ou^e dvopl, Qeto irpoa- tav irapayevop.evov. Id. ibid. p. 447-
200
O fjivcrrt'iptov' OVTC dyyeXoi i^ s elo(a\oiroiov TauTtjs uipecreios

dogoXoyiav TOtauTtjv. Id. ibid, Tas /cuas e/cTe/iovTes. Id. ibid. p. 446.
soi
p. 449. "&_y e Toivvv, Qeov oov\oi t dvopiKov
J8
Mr; 0ay6T<u TIS aVo TT;S TrXai/rjs (ppovrjfJia tvcvcrutfjLeda, yvvaiKwv oe TOO-
Trjf Sid Mapiav TJJW dyiav. KO! ydp el Ttav TI]V p.aviav &ia<TKtod<r(0fi.v , Id. ibid.
414 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

a most wonderful thing to consider, into what extremity this

frenzy brake out, after the time of Satan's loosing especially.


For then 202 there wanted not such as would interpret that
speech of the angel unto the holy Virgin, Hail full of
grace, the Lord is with thee, of the equality of her empire
with her Son's : as if it had been said, " Even as he, so
thou also dostsame most excellent dignity of
enjoy the
" 203 In the redundance
and effusion of grace upon
ruling."
the creatures, the Lord's power and will is so accommo-
dated unto thine, that thou mayest seem to be the first in
that both diadem and tribunal. The Lord is with thee:
not so much thou with the Lord, as the Lord with thee,
in that function."Then it was taught for good divinity,
that " 204
from the time wherein the Virgin-mother did con-
ceive in her womb the Word, of God, she hath obtained
such a kind of jurisdiction, so to speak, or authority, in
all temporal procession of the Holy Ghost, that no
the
creature hath obtained any grace or virtue from God, but

according to the dispensation of his holy mother:" that


205
she is the mother of the Son of God, who
because
doth produce the Holy Ghost, therefore all the gifts,
virtues, and graces of the Holy Ghost are by her hands ad-
ministered to whom she pleaseth, when she pleaseth, how
206
she pleaseth, and as much as she pleaseth:" that she hath
202 De cujus imperil ad similes effectus et diademate et tribunali esse videaris.

aequalitate cum Filio, non desunt qui Dominus tecum non tarn tu cum Domi-
:

construant illud ab angelo ipsi praenun- no, quam tecum Dominus in eo munere.
ciatum, Ave, gratia plena, Dominus te- Ibid.
cum ; id est, sicut et ipse, ita et tu eadem 204 A tempore enim quo Virgo mater
dominandi excellentissima dignitate per- concipit in utero Verbum Dei, quandam,
frueris. Emanuel de Valle de Moura, ut sic dicam, jurisdictionem seu auctori-
Doct. Theol. ac Inquisitionis Deputatus tatem obtinuit in omni Spiritus sancti
Lusitan. Opusc. i. de Incantationib. seu processione temporali; ita quod nulla
Ensalmis, sect. 1, cap. 1, num. 46. Quan- creatura aliquam a Deo obtinuit gratiam
tum ex historiis ecclesiasticis compertum vel virtutem, nisi secundum ipsius piae
habeo, a Concilii Ephesini temporibus matris dispensationem. Bernardin. Se-
animadvertimus magis magisque in dies nens. Serm. LXI. Artie. 1, cap. 8.
toto orbe Christiano beatissimae Virginis 205
Et quia talis est mater Filii Dei qui
cultum auctum amplificatumque fuisse. producit Spiritum sanctum, ideo omnia
Baron, in Martyrolog. Rom. Septem. 8. dona virtutis et gratise ipsius Spiritus
203 Ad
quern sensum facile accommo- sancti,quibus vult, quando vult, quomodo
dari possunt praecitata angeli verba, Domi- vult, et quantum vult, per manus ipsius
nus tecum, gratia plena ; id est, in gratise administrantur. Id. ibid.
see
Nulla gratia de ccelo nisi ea dispen-
plenitudine redundantiae, et effusione in
creaturas, ita Domini potentia ac voluntas sante ad nos descendit. Hoc enim singu-
ad tuam accommodatur, ut tu prior in eo lariter officium divinitus ab setemo adepta
IX. OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. 415

singularly obtained of God this office from eternity, as herself


doth testify, Proverbs viii. 23, / was ordained front ever-
" a and that
lasting, namely, dispenser of celestial graces ;"

^in this respect, Cantic. vii. 4, it is said of her, Thy neck


" as
is as a tower of ivory, because that by the neck the
vital spirits do descend from the head into the body, so

by the Virgin the vital graces are transmitted from Christ


the head into his mystical body ; the fulness of grace being
in him as in the head, from whence the influence cometh,
and in her as in the neck, through which it is transfused"
" 208
unto us; so that take away the patronage of the Virgin,
you stop, as it were, the sinner's breath, that he is not
able to live any longer."
Then men stuck not to that unto her " ^all
teach,

power was given in heaven and in earth." So that for


heaven, when our Saviour ascended thither, this might be
assigned for one reason, among others, why he left his
mother behind " 210 lest the court of heaven
him, perhaps
might have been in a doubt whom they should rather go
211
to meet, their Lord or their Lady;" and for earth, she

may rightly apply unto herself that in the 1st of Ezra,

est, sicut Proverb, viii. ipsa testatur, di- praesidiaque in homines transfunduntur.
cens, Ab aeterno ordinata sum; scilicet Bias. Viegas in Apocalyps. cap. xii. Com-

dispensatrix ccelestium gratiarum. Id. ment. n. sect 10,num. 1. Collum enim


ibid. Artie. 3, cap. 3. dicitur, quia per Virginem universa in nos
807 In Christo fuit a Deo, tanquam a capite, beneficia deri-
plenitude gratiae,
sicut in capite influente; in Maria vero, vantur. Id. ibid. num. 2.
sicut in collo transfundente. Unde Cantic. 208
Quasi sublato Virginis patrocinio,
vii. de Virgine ad Christum Salomon ait, perinde atque halitu intercluso, peccator
Collum tuum sicut turris eburnea. Nam vivere diutius non possit. Viegas, ibid,
sicut percollum vitales spiritus a capite sect. 2, num. 6.
descendunt in corpus, sic per Virginem a 209
Data est tibi omnis potestas in ccclo et
capite Christo vitales gratiae in ejus cor- in terra. Petr. Damian. Serm. i. de Nativi-

pus mysticum transfunduntur. Id. ibid. tat. B. Mariae, Tom. v. Surii, Septemb. 8.

cap. 8, et Artie. 2, cap. 10, ex


Artie. 210
1, Fortassis, Domine, ne tuae coelesti
Pseud-Hieronymi Sermone de Assumpt. curiae veniret in dubium, cui potius oc-
Mariae. Sicut enim a capite, mediante curreret; tibi videlicet Domino suo reg-
collo, descendunt omnia nutrimenta cor- num tuum assumpta came petenti, an
in

poris, sic a Christo per beatam Virginem ipsi dominae suac, ipsum regnum jam
in nos veniunt omnia bona et beneficia, suum materno jure effectum ascendenti.
quae Deus nobis contert. Nam ipsa est Anselm. Cantuar. de Excellentia B. Vir-
dispensatrix gratiarum et beneficiorum ginis, cap. 7, et eum secuti Bernard, de
Dei. Joan. Herolt. in Sermon. Discipuli Busti in Mariali, part. xi. Serm. i. part.
de Tempore, Serm. CLXIII. Per collum in. et Sebast. Barrad. Jesuit. Concord.
Virginis apud Deum gratia et intercessio Evangel, lib. vi. cap. 11.

intelligitur, ita ut ejus intercessio sit veluti


811
O igitur
regina nostra serenissima,
collum, per quod a Deo omnes gratia? profecto tu dicere potes illud, 1 Esdra i.
416 ANSWEB TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAT.

Ml the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord given unto


me; and we may say unto her again that in Tobit xiii.

Thy kingdom endureth for all ages; and in the 144th or


145th Psalm, Thy kingdom is a
kingdom of all ages. That
howsoever she was " 212 the noblest
person that was or ever
should be in the world, and of so
great perfection, that
although she had not been the mother of God, she ought
nevertheless to have been the
lady of the world; yet
according to the laws whereby the world is governed, by
the right of inheritance she did deserve the
principality and
" 213 Christ never
kingdom of this world." That made any
legacy of this monarchy, because that could not be done
without the prejudice of his mother; and he knew besides
that the mother could make void the testament of the
Son,
if it were made unto her prejudice. And therefore that
by
all
appeareth most evidently, that Mary the mother
this it
of Jesus, by right of inheritance, hath the
regal dominion
over all that be under God." That " 214 as creatures many
do serve the glorious Virgin as serve the
Mary Trinity;
namely, all creatures, whatsoever degree they hold among

Omnia regna terrae dedit mihi Dominus ; Filii irritare testamentum, si in sui prse-
et nos tibi dicere possumus illud, Tobi judicium sit confectum. Ex his omnibus
xiii. In omnia secula regnum tuum; et apertissime claret, quod mater Jesu Maria
Psal. cxLiv. Regnum tuum regnum om- haereditario jure omnium qui sunt infra
nium seculorum, &c.; et Dan. ii. Reg- Deum habet regale dominium, et incly-
num quod in aeternum non dissipabitur ; tum obtinet principatum. Id. ibid.
214
Veni ergo, et super nos regnum accipe,
Tot creaturae serviunt gloriosae Vir-
Judic. ix. De regno enim tuo dici potest gini Mariae, quot serviunt Trinitati. Om-
illud, Psal. ciii. Et regnum ipsius omni- nes nempe creaturae, quemcunque gradum
bus dominabitur ; et Luc. i. Et regni ejus teneant in creatis, sive spirituales ut an-
non erit finis. Bernardin. de Bust. Ma- geli, sive rationales ut homines, sive cor-
rial, part. xn. Serm. i. part. i. porales ut corpora coelestia vel elementa,
212 et omnia quae sunt in ccelo et in terra,
Quamvis autem benedicta Virgo
fuerit nobilior persona quam fuerit vel fu- sive damnati sive beati, quae omnia sunt
tura sit in orbe terrarum, tantaeque per- divino imperio subjugata, gloriosae Vir-

fectionis, quod etiamsi non fuisset mater gini sunt subjecta. Ille enim qui Dei

Dei, nihilominus debuisset esse domina Filius est et Virginis benedictae, volens,

mundi; tamen secundum leges quibus ut sic dicam, paterno principatui quodam-

regitur mundus, jure haereditario omnem modo principatum aequiparare maternum,


mundi hujus meruit principatum et reg- ipse qui Deus erat matri famulabatur in
num. Bernardin. Senens. Serm. LXI. terra. Unde Lucae ii. scriptum est de
Artie. 1, cap. 7- Virgine et glorioso Joseph, Erat subditus
213
De monarchia autem universi nun- illis. Praeterea haec est vera, Divino im-
quam Christus testatus est, eo quod sine perio omnia famulantur et Virgo ; et ite-
matris praejudicio nequaquam fieri pote- rum haec est vera, Imperio Virginis omnia
rat: insuper noverat, quod potest mater famulantur et Deus. Id. ibid. cap. 6.
IX
1
OF PRAYER TO SAINTS.

the things created, whether they be spiritual as


angels, or
rational as men, or corporeal as the heavenly bodies or the
elements ; and all things that are in heaven and in earth,
whether they be the damned or the blessed all which
being ;

brought under the government of God, are subject likewise


unto the glorious Virgin forasmuch as he who is the Son :

of God and of the blessed Virgin, being willing as it were


to in some sort his mother's
equal sovereignty unto the
sovereignty of his Father, even he who was God did serve
his mother upon earth. Whence, Luke ii. 51, it is written
of the Virgin and glorious Joseph, He was subject unto
them ; that, as this proposition is true, All things are subject
n
to God s command, even the Virgin herself, so this again
is true also, All things are subject to the command of the
That "
11

Virgin, even God himself.


215
considering the blessed
Virgin is the mother of God, and God is her Son, and

every son is naturally inferior to his mother and subject


unto her, and the mother hath pre-eminence and is superior
to her son; it therefore folio weth that the blessed
Virgin
is
superior to God, and God himself is subject unto her,
in respect of the manhood which he assumed from her.
11

That " 216


howsoever she be subject unto God, inasmuch as
she is a creature, yet is she said to be superior and
pre-
11
ferred before him, inasmuch as she is his mother.
Then men were put in mind, that "
217
by sinning after

baptism they seemed to contemn and despise the passion of


Christ, and so that no sinner doth deserve that Christ should
any more make intercession for him to the Father, without
whose intercession none can be delivered either from the

215
Cum beata Virgo sit mater Dei, et riae, quae imperatori omnium meruit im-
Deus Filius ejus, et omnis filius sit natu- perare ! Id. part. xn. Serm. ii.
raliter inferior matre et subditus ejus, et 217 Peccando post baptism um videntur
mater praelata et superior filio ; sequitur, contemnereetdespicere passionem Christi ;
quod ipsa benedicta Virgo sit superior et sic nullus peccator meretur quod Chris-

Deo, et ipse Deus sit subditus ejus ratione tus amplius intercedat pro ipso apud Pa-
humanitatis ab ea assumptae. Bemardin. trem, sine cujus intercessione nemo potest
de Bust. Marial. part. ix. Serm. n. liberari a poena aeterna nee temporali, nee
216
Ipsa benedicta Virgo, licet sit sub- culpa quam ipse voluntarie perpetravit :

jecta Deo in quantum creatura, superior et ideo fuit necesse ut Christus consti-r
tamen illi dicitur et praelata, in quantum tueret matrem suam praedilectam media-
est ejus mater. Unde Luc. ii. de Christo tricem inter nos et ipsum. Jacob, de
Deo et homine scriptum est, quod erat Valentia Episc. Christopolitan. in Expo-
subditus illi. O ineffabilis dignitas Ma- sit. Cantic. Virg. Mariae, Magnificat.
1) D
418 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

eternal punishment or the temporal, nor from the fault which


he hath voluntarily committed and therefore that it was
;

necessary that Christ should constitute his well-beloved mother


a mediatrix betwixt us and him." " 218 And so in this our

pilgrimage there is no other refuge left unto us in our tri-


bulations and adversities, but to have recourse unto the Virgin

Mary our11 mediatrix, that she would appease the wrath of


her Son. " 219 as he is ascended into heaven to
That,
appear in the sight of God for men, (Heb. ix. 24-), so she
ought to ascend thither to appear in the sight of her Son
for sinners; that so mankind might have always before the
face of God a help like unto Christ for the procuring of
his salvation.'" That " ^this empress is of so great authority
in the palace of heaven, that it is lawful to appeal unto
her from any grievance, all other intermedial saints omitted ;
for howsoever, according to the civil law, the due mean
must be observed in appeals, yet in her the style of the
canon law is observed, wherein the Pope is appealed unto,
intermedial whatsoever omitted.'" That 221
she " is a
any

218 221
Et sic in hac peregrinatione non Nos autem dicere possumus, quod
relinquitur nobis aliud refugium in nos- beatissima Virgo est cancellaria in ccelesti
tris tribulationibus et adversitatibus, nisi curia. Nam videmus quod in cancellaria
recurrere ad Virginem Mariam media - Domini Papae conceduntur tria genera li-
tricem, ut velit placare iram Filii. Id. terarum, &c. Istas autem literas miseri-
ibid. cordiae dat (B. Virgo) solum in praesenti
219
Sicut ille ibi ascendit ut continue vita. Nam animabus decedentibus qui-
appareat vultui Dei pro hominibus, busdam dat literas purae gratiae, aliis vero

(Heb. ix.), ita ego debeo ibi ascendere, simplicis justitiae, et quibusdam mixtas,
ut appaream vultui ipsius Filii pro pecca- scilicet justitiae et gratiae. Quidam enim
toribus; et sic humanum genus habeat fuerunt sibi valde devoti, et istis dat lite-

semper ante faciem Dei adjutorium simile ras purae gratia?, per quas mandat ut detur
Christo ad procurandam suam salutem. eis gloria sine aliqua purgatorii poena.
Bernardin. de Bust. Marial. part. xi. Alii autem fuerunt miseri peccatores et
Serm. n. memb. 1. ejus indevoti, et istis dat literas simplicis
220
Tantae autem auctoritatis in coelesti per quas mandat ut eis fiat con-
justitiae,

palatio est ista imperatrix, quod, omnibus digna vindicta. Alii vero fuerunt in de-
aliis sanctis intermediis omissis, ad ipsam votione tepidi et remissi, et istis dat literas
ab omni gravamine appellare. Licet
licet justitiae et gratiae simul, per quas mandat
enim secundum jura civilia debitum me- ut et gratia eis fiat, et tamen illis inferatur
dium servetur in appellationibus, (1. Im- aliqua purgatorii pcena propter negligen-
peratores, ff. de appel. reci.), tamen in tiam et torporem. Et ista significantur in
ipsa servatur stylus juris canonici, quo Hester regina, quag, ut habetur Hest. viii.
omisso quolibet medio appellatur ad sum- scripsit literas ut Judsei salverentur, et
mum Pontificem. (C. si duobus extra de hostes interficerentur, et pauperibus mu-

appel.) Id. part. in. Serm. in. in Ex- nuscula darentur. Id. part. xn. Serm. 11.
cellent. IV. memb. 1, in Excellent, xxn.
IX.]
OF PHAYK1! TO SAIXTS. 11*)

and " givcth


1
chancellor in the court of heaven/ letters of

mercy only in this present life; but for the souls that depart
from hence, unto some letters of pure grace, unto others of
simple justice, and unto some mixed of justice and grace.
For some," say they, " were much devoted unto her, and
unto them she giveth letters of pure grace, whereby she
comrnandeth glory to be given them without any pain of
purgatory. Others were miserable sinners, and not devoted
to her, and unto them she giveth letters of simple justice,

whereby she commandeth that condign punishment be taken


of them. Others were lukewarm and remiss in devotion, and
unto them she giveth letters of justice and grace together,

whereby she commandeth that both favour be done unto


them, and yet some pain of purgatory be inflicted upon
them for their negligence and sluggishness." And these
" are
things, they say, signified in Queen Esther, who wrote
letters that the Jews should be saved, and the enemies should
be killed, and to the poor small gifts should be given."
222
Yea, further also, where King Ahasuerus did proffer unto
the said Esther even the half of his kingdom, (Esther v. 3),

thereby, they say, was signified that God bestowed half of


"
his kingdom upon the blessed Virgin that having justice ;

and mercy as the chiefest goods of his kingdom, he retained


justice unto himself, and granted mercy unto her;" and
" 223 therefore that if a man do find himself in the
aggrieved
court of God's justice, he may appeal to the court of mercy
of his mother," she being that '^throne of grace whereof the

Apostle speaketh, Heb. iv. 16, Let us go boldly unto the


throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace
to help in time of need.
22 323
Confugimus autem primo ad beatis- Ista imperatrix figuravit imperatri-
simam Virginem, ccelorum reginam, cui cem coelorum, cum qua Deus regnum
j

Rex regum, Pater ccelestis, dimidium reg- |


suum divisit. Cum enim Deus habeat
ni sui dedit. Quod significatum est in j
justitiam et misericordiam, justitiam si-
Hester regina, quae cum ad placandum j
bi in hoc mundo exercendam retinuit,
Assuerum regem accessisset, dixit ei rex, ]
et misericordiam matri concessit. Et
Etiam si dimidiam partem regni mei pe- ideo si quis sentit se gravari a foro jus-
tieris, dabitur tibi. Sic Pater ccelestis, titiae Dei, appellet ad forum misericor-
cum habeat justitiam et misericordiam diae matris ejus. Bemardin. de Bust.
tanquam potiora regni sui bona, justitia Marial. part. in. Serm. in. in Excel-
sibi retenta, misericordiam matri Virgini lent. IV.
concessit.Gabr. Biel in Canon. Missae, JiM
Id. ibid. Excellent, v. et
part. v.
Lect. LXXX Vide Johan. Gerson. Tract,
.
Serm. vn.in fine.
iv. super Magnificat.
D D2
420 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

tell for the ornament of an


that " 225
it is
They us,

earthly kingdom, have both a king and a


that it should

queen; and therefore, when any king hath not a wife, his

subjects often do request him to take one." Hereupon they


" the eternal and
say, that King omnipotent Emperor, mind-
ing to adorn the kingdom of heaven above, did frame this
blessed Virgin, to the end he might make her the lady and

empress of his kingdom and empire; that the prophecy of


David might be verified, saying unto her in the Psalm,
Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in clothing of
gold" That " 226
she is an empress, because she is the

spouse of the eternal Emperor, of whom it is said, John


iii. 29, He that hath the brideand is the bridegroom ,-"

" when God did deliver unto her the


that empire of the
world, and all the things contained therein, he said unto
her that Which we read in the first of the ^Eneids:
" His rerum nee tempora pono;
ego nee metas
Imperium sine fine dedi."

That she the empress also " of heaven and earth, because
is
227

she did bear the heavenly emperor; and therefore that she
can ask of him what she will, and obtain it." That "this
was figured in the history of the kings, where the mother
of Solomon said unto him, / desire one petition of thee,
do not confound my face; for then should he confound
her face, if he did deny that which she requested." And
that " if in respect of her maternal jurisdiction she hath
command of her Son, who was subject unto her, as we read

225 Ad ornamentum regni terreni est, imperium orbis et omnium contentorum in


quod habeat regem et reginam. Et prop- eo, dixit ei illud quod habetur jEneid. i.

ter hoc quando aliquis rex non habet uxo- Id. part. in. Serm. HI. in Excellent.
rem, ejus subditi plerumque ei supplicant IV.
ut earn accipiat. Supernum ergo ccelorum 227 Beata virgo est imperatrix coeli et

regnum volens Rex aeternus et Imperator terrae,quia ipsa genuit coelestem impe-
omnipotens decorare, fabricavit hanc bea- ratorem. Et ideo potest ab eo petere
tissimam Virginem, ut illam regni et im- quicquid vult et obtinere, quod figura-
peril sui faceret dominam et imperatricem, tum fuit, 3 Reg. ii. ubi mater Salomo-
ut verificaretur prophetia David, Psal. nis dixit ei, Petitionem unam peto a te,

xLiv. ei dicentis, Astitit regina a dextris ne confundas faciem meam : tune enim
tuis in vestitu deaurato, circundata varie- faciem suam confunderet quando illud

tate. Id. part. ix. Serm. n. quod peteret denegaret. Si ergo imperat
286
Est etiam imperatrix, quia aeterni Filioratione maternalis jurisdictionis, qui
fuit subditus illi, ut habetur, Luc. ii.
Imperatoris est sponsa, de quo dicitur
Johan. cap. iii. Qui habet sponsam spon- multo magis imperat omnibus creaturis
BUS est. Quando vero Deus illi tradidit Filio suo subjectis. Id. ibid.
IX.]
OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. 421

Luke ii. 51, then much more hath she command over all

the creatures that are


subject to her Son." That this
" ^ Mighty God did, as far as he might, make his mother
partner of his Divine majesty and power, giving unto her
of old the sovereignty both of celestial things and mortal ;

ordering at her pleasure, as the patronage of men did require,


the earth, the seas, heaven, and nature; at her liking, and

by her, bestowing upon mortal men his divine treasures


and heavenly gifts: so as all might understand, that what-
soever doth flow into the earth from that eternal and glori-
ous fountain of good things, doth flow by MARY." That
" 229 she is constituted over and whosoever
every creature,
boweth his knee unto Jesus, doth fall down also and sup-
plicate unto his mother ; so that the glory of the Son may
be judged not so much to be common with the mother,
as to be the very same." That " 230 so great is her glory,
that she exceedeth the nature of angels and men joined

together, as far in glory as the circumference of the firma-


ment exceedeth his centre in magnitude, when she under-
standeth herself in her Son to be, as his other self, clothed
with the Deity." That she, being " ^the mother of God,
doth assume unto herself of the omnipotency of her Son,
upon which she leaneth, as much as she pleaseth." And
that she " ^doth come before the golden altar of human

228 23
Matrem quippe suam praepotens Tanta est gloria Virginis matris
ille Deus
divinae majestatis potestatisque Dei, quod tantum excedit in gloria na-
sociam, quatenus licuit, adscivit. Huic turam angelicam ethumanam simul junc-
olim ccelestium mortaliumque principa- tarn, quantum circumferentia firmament!
turn detulit : ad hujus arbitrium, quoad excedit in magnitudine suum centrum ;
j

hominum tutela postulat, terras, maria,


j
cum intelligat in Filio suo se, quasi alte-
ccelum naturamque moderatur; hac an-
j
rum ipsum, Deitate vestitam. Bernard,
nuente et per hanc divinos thesauros de Bust. Marial. part. xn. Serm. n. in
mortalibus et ccclestia dona largitur : ut Excellent, xxi.
omnes intelligant, quicquid ab aeterno 231
Qui enim alicui rei innititurj vir .
illo augustoque bonorum fonte in terras |

tutem ejus sibi assumit ^ et ea sicut yuh


profluat, fluere per MARIAM. Horat.
Et
j
utitur similiter ipsa Dei mater de
Tursellin. Jesuit, in Epist. Dedicator. |
omnipotentia Filii 8ui , cui est innixa,
Historiae Lauretanae ad Cardinalem Al- assum i t Id. part,
quantum vult sibi .

dobrandinum.
S9
,

xn germ n in Excellent . XXV iii.


Constituta quippe est super omnem
human *
j

creaturam ; etquicunque Jesu curvatgenu, Accedis ante illud aureum


matri quoque pronus supplicat; et Filii reconciliatioms altare, non solum rogam,
cum matre non sed n ^ domina, nonancilla. Petr.
gloriam tarn communem P<
Uamian. Serm. i. de Nativit. B. Ma-
judico, quam candem. Arnold. Carno- |

riac<
tens. Tract, de Laudib. Virginis.
422 ANSWER TO A JESUIT CHALLENGE.

reconciliation, not entreating only, but commanding, a mis-


tress, not a maid."

They tell us that the blessed


Virgin herself appeared
once unto Thomas
Becket, and used this speech unto him :
"
^Rejoice and be glad, and be joyful with me, because
my glory doth excel the dignity and joy of all the saints
and the blessed spirits ; and I alone have greater glory
all

than the angels and saints together.


all
Rejoice, because
that as the sun doth enlighten the day and the world,
so brightness doth enlighten the whole celestial world.
my
Rejoice, because the whole host of heaven obeyeth me,
reverenceth and honoureth because my Son
me. Rejoice,
is
always obedient unto me and my
and all my prayers will,
he always heareth ;" (or, as others do relate it, " ^The will
of the blessed Trinity and mine is one and the same; and
whatsoever doth please me, the whole Trinity with unspeak-
able favour doth consent " because God
give unto.") Rejoice,
doth always at my pleasure reward my servitors in this
world and in the world to come. Rejoice, because I sit
next to the Holy Trinity, and am clothed with my body
glorified. Rejoice, because I am certain and sure that these
my joys shall always stand, and never be finished or fail.

And whosoever by rejoicing with these spiritual joys shall

worship me in this world, at the time of the departure of


his soul out of the body he shall obtain my presence ; and
I will deliver his soul from the malignant enemies, and

present it in the sight of my Son, that it may possess joys

233 Gaude exulta mecum,


et laetare, ac Gaude, quia certa sum et secura, quod
quia gloria mea exeellit dignitatem et haecmea gaudia semper stabunt, et nun-
laetitiam omnium sanctorum et cunctorum quam finientur vel deficient Et quicun-
spirituum beatorum, et
majorem gloriam que cum his gaudiis spiritualibus Icetando
habeo ipsa sola quam omnes simul angeli in hoc seculo me venerabitur, in exitu
et sancti. Gaude, quia sicut sol illumi- animae suae de corpore praesentiam meam
nat diem ac mundum, sic claritas mea obtinebit ; et ipsam animam ab hostibus
illuminat totum orbem ccelestem. Gaude, malignis liberabo, et in conspectu Filii mei
quia tota militia cceli mihi obedit, me ve- ut mecumgaudia possideat praasentabo.
neratur et honorat. Gaude, quia Filius Bernardin. de Bust. Marial. part. x.
meus mihi semper est obediens, et meam Serm. n. sect. ult.
234
voluntatem et cunctas preces meas sem- Quod summas Trinitatis et mea est

per exaudit. Gaude, quia Deus semper una voluntas ; et quodcunque mihi pla-
ad beneplacitum meum remunerat servi- cuerit, tota Trinitas ineffabili favore con-
tores meos in hoc seculo et in futuro. sentit. Promptuar. Discipuli, de Mira-
Gaude, quia proxima sedeo sanctae Trini- culisB. MarifB. Exempl. xiv. p. 8, edit,
tati, et vestita sum corpore meo gloriticato, Mogunt. anno 1612.
IX.J
OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. 423

with me." us " that


They tell many (^many whores,"
" that would not on
for example, sinSaturday for the
11
reverence of the Virgin, whatsoever they did on the Lord's
" seem to have the blessed
day,) Virgin in greater vene-
ration than Christ her Son moved thereunto out of sim-
;

plicity more than out of knowledge. Yet that the Son of


God doth bear with the simplicity of these men and women,""
because he is not ignorant that " the honour of the mother
doth redound to the child," Prov. xvii. 6. .
They argue
" 236
a Cardinal have that if
further, that if this privilege,
he put his cap upon the head of one that is led unto justice
he is freed
thereby, then by an argument drawn from the
stronger,the cloak of the blessed Virgin is able to deliver
us from all evil, her mercy being so large that if she should
see any man who did devoutly make her crown," that is

to say, repeat the rosary or chaplet of prayers made for


her worship, " to be drawn unto punishment in the midst
of a thousand devils, she would presently rescue him, and
not permit that any one should have an evil end who did
study reverently to make her crown." They add, moreover,
" ^for
that every of these crowns'" a man shall obtain
"
"273,758 days of indulgence ;" and that Pope Sixtus the
Fourth granted an indulgence of twelve thousand years
for every time that a man in the state of grace should

886
Multae merctrices in die Sabbati ad supplicium, eum protinus liberabit ;
non peccarent propter reverentiam Vir- nee permittet aliquem male finiri, qui
ginia. Et multi videntur beatam Virgi- ejus coronam reverenter studuerit facere.
nem in majori veneratione habere quam Id. part. xu. Serm. i. memb. 3.
Christum Filium ejus ; magis ex simpli- Sic in summa enint ducenta septua-
237

citate moti quam scientia. Sed quia ginta tria millia septingenti quinquaginta
honor matris redundat in filium, Prov. octo dies indulgentiaa pro qualibet corona.
xvii. patientiam habet Filius Dei de hac Felicis autem recordationis Sixtus Papa
<juorundam virorum et mulierum simpli- quartus, omnibus dicentibus in statu
citate. Bernardin. de Bust. part. vi. gratiae infra scriptam orationem sive salu-
Serm. u. memb. 3. tationem ipsius Virginis, quae a multis
236
Si hoc privilegium habet Cardinalis, dicitur in corona, concessit indulgentiam

quod ponat pileum sive capillum suum


si duodecim millium annorum pro qualibet
super caput illius qui ducitur ad justitiam, vice qua dicitur Ave sanctissima Maria,
:

liberatur ; (secundum Baldum et Paulum mater Dei, regina cceli, porta paradisi,
de Castro, in /. addictos. C. de appel.) a dominamundi. Singularis et pura tu es
fortiori pallium beatae Virginis potest virgo. Tu concepisti Christum sine pec-
nos ab omnibus malis liberare. Tarn cato. Tu peperisti creatorem et salvato-
lata enim quod si
est ejus misericordia, rem mundi, in quo non dubito. Libera
aliquem devote facientem coronam suam me ab omni malo, et ora pro peccatis meis.
videret in medio millium dacmonum trahi Amen. Ibid.
424* ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

repeat this short orison or salutation of the Virgin, which


by many is inserted into her crown: Hail most holy Mary,
the mother of God, the queen of heaven, the gate of para-
dise, the lady of the world thou art a singular and pure
:

Virgin, thou didst conceive Christ without sin; thou


didst
bear the Creator and Saviour of the world, in whom I do
not doubt. Deliver me from all evil, and pray for my sins.
Amen."
In the Crown composed by
Bonaventure this is one of
the orisons that
prescribed be said: " 238 O empress
is to
and our most kind lady, by the authority of a mother com-
mand thy most beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ, that
he would vouchsafe to lift up our minds from the love of
earthly things unto heavenly desires ;" which is suitable
unto that versicle which we read in the 35th Psalm of his
Psalter: " * 39 Incline the countenance of God
lady's upon
us ;
compel him to have mercy upon sinners ;" the harshness
whereof our Romanists have a little qualified in some of
their editions, readingthus: " 24 Incline the countenance of

thy Son upon us ; compel him by thy prayers to have mercy


"
1

upon us sinners. The Psalms of this Psalter do all of


them begin as David's do, but with this main difference,
that where the Prophet in the one aimeth at the advance-
ment of the honour of our Lord, the Friar in the other
applieth all to the magnifying of the power and goodness
of our lady. So in the first Psalm: " 241 Blessed is the
" that loveth
man," quoth Bonaventure, thy name, O Virgin
Mary ;
thy grace shall comfort his soul." And in the others
" ai2
following: Lady, how trouble
are they multiplied that
me with thy tempest shalt thou persecute and scatter them."
!

" 213
Lady, suffer me not to be rebuked in the fury of God,

238
O
imperatrix et domina nostra be- misereri. Psalter. Bonaventur. seorsim

nignissima, jure matris irapera tuo dilec- '.

edit. Parisiis, anno 1596, in Capeleto Do-


tissimo Flio Domino nostro Jesu Christo, minicae n.
241
ut mentes nostras ab amore terrestrium ad Beatus vir qui diligit nomen tuum,
coelestia desideria erigere dignetur. Bo- Maria virgo; gratia tua animam ejus
naventur. Corona B. Mariae Virginis, !
confortabit. Psal. i.
242
Operum Tom. vi. edit. Rom. ann 1588. Domina, quid multiplicati sunt qui
239
Inclina vultum Dei super nos ; coge tribulant me ? in tempestate tua perse-
j

ilium peccatoribus misereri. Id. in Psal- !

queris et dissipabis eos. Psal. iii.


terio B. Maria? Virg. ibid. 243
Domina, ne in furore Dei sinas
240
Inclina vultum Filii tui super nos, corripi me; neque in ira ejus judicari-

coge ilium precibus nobis peccatoribus Psal. vi.


IX. OK I'llAYEK TO SAINTS. 425

wrath." " 244


nor to be judged in his My lady* in thee
have I put my trust ; deliver me from mine enemies, O
" ~ 45 In our
lady." lady put I
my trust, for the sweetness
" 2l(1
How
of the mercy of her name." long wilt thou forget
me, O lady, and not deliver me in the day of tribulation?"
u 217 p reserve Q
mej lady, for in thee have I put my trust;
and impart unto me the drops of thy grace." " a '8
I will
love thee, O lady of heaven and earth ; and I will call upon
" 249 The heavens declare
thy name among the nations."
thy glory, and the fragrance of thine ointments is spread
" ^Hear
among nations." the us, lady, in the day of
trouble, and turn thy merciful face unto our prayers."
4 251
Unto thee, O lady, have I lifted up my soul; in the
judgment of God, by thy prayers, I shall not be ashamed."
" 252
Judge me, lady, for I have departed from mine inno-
cency ; but because I will trust in thee, I shall not be
" ^In
weakened." thee, O lady, have I put my trust,
let me never be confounded ; in thy favour receive me."
" 2M
Blessed are they whose hearts do love thee, O Virgin
Mary ; their sins by thee shall mercifully be washed away."
" 255
Lady, judge those that hurt me, and rise up against
" 256
them, and plead my cause." Waiting have I waited
for thy grace, and thou hast done unto me according to
the multitude of the mercy of thy name." " 257
Lady, thou

244 Domina mea, de Dei


in te speravi ; ini- in judicio tuis precibus non erubes-
micis meis libera me, domina. Psal. cam. Psal. xxiv.
vil 252
Judica me, domina, quoniam ab
246
In domina confido, propter dulce- innocentia mea digressus sum ; sed quia
dinem misericordiae nominissui. Psal. x. sperabo in te, non infirmabor. Psal.
246 XXV.
Usquequo, domina, oblivisceris me,
263
et non liberas me in die tribulationis ? In te, domina, speravi, non confundar
Psal. xii. in aeternum ; in gratia tua suscipe me.
247 Conserva me, domina, quoniam spe- Psal. xxx.
254
ravi in te ; mihique tuae stillicidia gratiae Beati quorum corda te diligunt,
impertire. Psal. xv. virgO Maria; peccata ipsorum a te mise-
248 domina coeli et terras
Diligam te, ; ricorditer diluentur. Psal. xxxi.
255
et in gentibus nomen tuum invocabo. Judica, domina, nocentes me, et con-
Psal. xvii. tra eos exsurge, et vindica causam meam.
249 Cceli enarrant gloriam tuam, et un- Psal. xxxiv.
256
guentorum tuorum fragrantia in gentibus Exspectansexspectavigratiam tuam,
est dispersa. Psal. xviii. et mihi secundum multitudinem
fecisti
250
Exaudiasnos, domina, in die tribula- misericordiae nominis tui. Psal. xxxix.
et precibus nostris convene cle- 257
tionis ; Domina, refugium nostrum tu es in
mentem faciem tuam. Psal. xix. omni necessitate nostra, et virtus potentior
* 51
Ad te, domina, levavi animammeam ; contercns inimicum. Psal. XLV.
426 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

art our refuge in all our necessities, and the powerful strength
" 258
Have mercy upon me, O
treading down the enemy ."

lady, who art the mother of mercy; and according


called
to bowels of thy mercies cleanse me from all mine
the
" 259 Save me,
iniquities." lady, by thy name, and deliver
me from mine " 260 Have
unrighteousness." mercy upon me,
O lady, have mercy upon me, because my heart is prepared
to search out thy will ; and in the shadow of
thy wings
" 261 Let
will I rest."
Mary arise, and let her enemies be
scattered ; let them all be trodden down under her feet."
" 262 In thee, O
lady, have I put my trust, let me never
be put to confusion deliver me in thy mercy, and cause
;

me to escape." "
Give the King thy judgment, O God,
263

and thy mercy to the queen his mother." " ^Lady, the
Gentiles are come into the inheritance of God, whom thou
" 265
by thy merits hast confederated unto Christ." Thy
O will I for ever." " 266 God is the Lord
mercies, lady, sing
of revenges ; but thou the mother of mercy dost bow him
" 267 O come let us
to take pity." sing unto our lady ;
let us make a joyful noise to our queen that brings
Mary
" 268 O our new
salvation." sing unto lady a song, for she
hath done marvellous things." " 269 O give thanks unto the
Lord, for he is good; give thanks unto his mother, for
her mercy endureth for ever." " 270
Lady, despise not

258 264
Miserere mei, domina, quae mater Domina, venerunt gentes in haeredi-
misericordiae nuncuparis; et secundum tatem Dei ; quas tu meritis tuis Christo
viscera misericordiarum tuarum munda confcederasti. Psal. Lxxviii.
me ab omnibus iniquitatibus meis. Psal. 265
Misericordias tuas, domina, in sem-
L. piternum decantabo. Psal. Lxxxviii.
259
Domina, in nomine tuo salvum me 266
Deus ultionum Dominus ; sed tu
fac, et ab injustitiis meis libera me. mater misericordiae ad miserandum in-
Psal. Liii. flectis. Psal. xciii.
seo Miserere mei, domina, miserere mei; 267
Venite, exultemus dominae nostrae ;
quia paratum est cor meum exquirere vo-
jubilemus salutiferae Mariae reginae nos-
luntatem tuam ; et in umbra alarum
trae. Psal. xciv.
tuarum requiescam. Psal. Lvi. 268
261
Cantate dominae nostrae canticum no-
Exsurgat Maria, et dissipentur ini-
vum ; quia mirabilia fecit. Psal. xcvii.
mici ejus ; conterantur omnes sub pedi-
269
bus ejus. Psal. Lxvii. Confitemini Domino, quoniam bo-
262
In te, domina, speravi, non confun- nus; confitemini matri ejus, quoniam in
dar in aeternum in tua misericordia li- seculum misericordia ejus. Psal. cvi.
;

bera me, et eripe me. Psal. LXX.


and cxvii.
263 270
Deus, judicium tuum regi da, et Domina, laudem meam ne despex-
misericordiam tuam reginae matri ejus. eris; et hoc dedicatum tibi Psalterium
Psal. Lxxi. digneris acceptare. Psal. cviii.
IX.] OF I'KAYEIl TO SAINTS. 427

my and vouchsafe to accept this Psalter which is


praise ;

dedicated unto thee.


11 " * :1 The Lord said unto our
lady,
Sit thou, my mother* at
1
" * 72
my right hand.' They that
trust in thee, O mother of God, shall not fear from the
face of the " 273
enemy." Except our lady build the house
1
of our heart, the building thereof will not continue.'
" 274
Blessed are who fear our lady; and blessed
all
they
are all they who know
do thy will and thy good pleasure."
to
" 275 Out of the
deep have I cried unto thee, O lady; lady,
" 276 1'
hear my voice. Lady, remember David, and all that
11 " 277 O
call upon
thy name. give thanks unto the Lord
because he is good; because by his most sweet mother the
" 278 Blessed be thou,
Virgin Mary is his mercy given."
O lady, which teachest thy servants to war, and strengthenest
them against the enemy :" and so the last Psalm is begun
" 279 Praise our
with, lady in her saints; praise her in her
1'
virtues and miracles; and endeth accordingly with Omnis
laudet dominant " Let
spiritus nostram, every spirit, or,
11
every thing that hath breath, praise our lady.
To this we may adjoin the
28
Psalter of the Salutations
of the Virgin, framed by John Peckham, Archbishop of
Canterbury, which is not yet printed. His Preface he
beginneth thus :

Mente concipio laudes perscribere


Sanctee Virginis; quae nos a earcere
Solvit per Filium, genus in genere
Miri vivificans effectus opere:

and endeth with a prayer to the blessed Virgin, that she


would " release the sins of all those for whom he prayed,

271 Dominus 276


Dixit dominae nostrae, Memento, domina, David, et omnium
Sede, mater mea, a dextris meis. Psal. invocantium nomen tuum. Psal. cxxxi.
277Contitemini Domino, quoniam bonus
cix.
272
Qui confidunt in te, mater Dei, non est quoniam per suam dulcissimam ma-
;

timebunt a facie inimici. Psal. cxxiv. trem Virginem Mariam datur misericordia
273 Nisi domina aedificaverit domum ejus. Psal. cxxxv.
cordis nostri, non permanebit aedificium 278 Benedicta
sis, domina, quae instruis

ejus.. Psal. cxxvi. servos tuos ad praelium, et eos roboras


274 Bead omnes qui timent dominam contra inimicum. Psal. cxLiii.
nostram ; et beati omnes qui sciunt facere 279 Laudate dominam in sanctis ejus ;

voluntatem tuam et beneplacitum tuum. laudate earn in virtutibus et miraculis


Psal. cxxvii. ejus. Psal. CL.
75 M Psalterium meditatiomun B. Ma-
Deprofundis clamavi ad te, domina;
domina, exaudi vocem meam. Psal. rice vocatur a Jo. PitMo, de Illustri
cxxix. Angl. Scriptorib. p. 380.
428 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

and cause both his own name and theirs to be written in


the Book of Life :"

Nee non et omnibus relaxes crimina,


Pro quibus supplicans fundo precamina;
Nostrumque pariter et horum nomina
Conscribi facias in vitae pagina.

Then followeth his first Psalm, wherein he prayeth that


she would " make us to meditate often God's law," and
afterwards " to be made blessed in the of God's glory king-
dom :"

Ave Virgo Virginum, parens absque pari,


Sine viri semine digna foecundari :

Fac nos legem Domini crebro meditari;


Et in regni gloria beatificari.

His other 149 Psalms, which are fraught with the same
kind of
stuff, pass I But Bernardinus de
over. Senis's
2* l
boldness may not be forgotten, who thinketh that God
will give him leave to maintain that " the Virgin Mary
did more unto him, or at least as much, as he himself did
and " that we may say
1'
unto mankind
all ;" for our comfort,
forsooth " that
! in of the blessed whom
respect Virgin,
God make notwithstanding, God after a sort
himself did
is more bound unto us than we are unto him." With
which absurd and wretched speculation Bernardinus de Busti
after him was so well pleased, that he dareth to revive again
this most odious comparison, and propose it afresh in this
" 282 But O most
saucy manner: grateful Virgin, didst not
thou something to God ? didst not thou make him any

281
Sola henedicta virgo Maria plus obligetur nobis, quam nos sibi. Bernard.
fecit Deo vel tantum, ut sic dicam, quam Senens. Serm. LXI. Art. i. cap. 11.
Deus toti generi humano. Credo 282
fecit Sed, o Virgo gratissima, nunquid tu
etenim certe quod mihi indulgebit Deus, aliquid fecisti Deo ? Nunquid vicem ei

si nunc pro Virgine loquar. Congrege- reddidisti? Profecto, si fas est dicere,
mus in unum quae Deus homini fecit ; et tu secundum quid majora fecisti Deo
consideremus quae Maria virgo Domino quam ipse Deus tibi et universo generi
satisfecit, &c. Reddendo ergo singula humano. Volo ergo ego dicere quod tu
singulis, scilicet quae fecit Deus homini, ex humilitate reticuisti. Tu enim solum
et quae fecit Deo beata Virgo, videbis cecinisti, quia fecit mihi magna qui po-
quod plus fecit Maria Deo, quam homini tens est ;ego vero cano et dico, quia tu
Deus; ut sic pro solatio dicere liceat, fecisti majora ei quipotensest. Bernard,
quod propter beatam Virginem, quam de Bust. Marial. part. vi. Serm. n.
tamen ipse fecit, Deus quodammodo plus membr. 3.
F\ I
OF PRAYER TO SAINTS.

recompence ? Truly, if it be lawful to speak it, thou in


some respect didst greater things to God than God him sell'
did to thee and to all mankind. I will therefore
speak
that which thou out of thy humility hast passed in silence :

for thou only didst sing, He that is mighty hath done to


me great things; but I do sing and say, that thou hast
done greater things to him that is mighty."" Neither is
283
that vision much better, which the same author reciteth
284
as shewed to St Francis, or, as others would have it, to
his companion Friar Lyon, touching the two ladders which
reached from earth unto heaven; the one red, upon which
Christ leaned, from whence many fell backward and could
not ascend; the other white, upon which the holy Virgin
" were
leaned, the help whereof such as used, by her
received with a cheerful countenance, and so with
facility
ascended into Neither yet that sentence which
heaven."
came first from Anselm, and was after him used by Ludol-
phus Saxo the Carthusian, and Chrysostomus a Visitatione
" ^more relief is some-
the Cistercian that monk; present
times found by commemorating the name of Mary, than
by calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus, her only Son ;"
which one of ^our Jesuits is so far from being ashamed to
defend, that he dareth to extend it further to the mediation
of other saints also telling us very peremptorily, that
;

" Lord Jesus worketh greater miracles by his saints


as our
than by himself, John xiv. 12, so often he sheweth the force
of their intercession more than of his own."
All which I do lay down thus largely, not because I
take any delight in rehearsing those things which deserve
rather to be buried in everlasting oblivion, but, Jirst, that
the world may take notice, what kind of monster is nourished
in the Papacy under that strange name of Hyperdub'a; the
bare discovery whereof, I am persuaded, will prevail as
much with a mind that is touched with any zeal of God's

283
Id. part. ix. Serm. u. Assimilat. nomine Domini Jesu unici Filii sui. An-
ii. selm. de Excellentia B. Virginia, cap. 6.
284
Speculum Vitae Francisci et socio- Ludolph. Carthusian, de Vita Christi,
rum n. cap. 45, edit. Gulielmi
ejus, part. part. n. cap. 68, et Chrysostom. a Visi-
Spoelberch. Item, Speculum Exemplo- tatione de Verbis Domin.e, Tom. n. lib.
rum, Dist. vu. Exempl. XLI. ii.
cap. 2.
285 286
Velocior est nonnunquam salus me- Henr. Fitz-Simon of the Mass.
morato nomine Mariae, quam invocato part ii. lib. ii. chap. 3.
430 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

honour, as all other arguments and authorities whatsoever:


secondly, that such unstable souls as look back unto Sodom,
<and have a lust to return unto Egypt again, may be advised
to look a little into this sink, and consider with themselves
whether the steam that ariseth from thence be not so noisome,
that it is not to be endured
by one that hath any sense left
in him of piety and thirdly, that such as be established
:

in the truth may be thankful to God for this great mercy


vouchsafed unto them, and make this still one part of their
prayers, From all Romish Dulia and Hyperdulia, good
Lord, deliver us.

OF IMAGES.

WITH Prayer to Saints our Challenger joineth the use


of Holy Images; which what it hath been and still is in
the Church of Rome, seeing he hath not been pleased to
declare unto us in particular, I hope he
will give us leave
to learn from others. " l lt the doctrine, then, of the
is

Roman Church, that the images of Christ and the saints


should with pious religion be worshipped by Christians,""
saith Zacharias Boverius, the Spanish friar, in his late
Consultation directed to our most noble Prince Charles,
" 2 the 3
hope of the Church of England," and the future

felicity
of the world," as even this Balaam himself doth

style him. The representations of God, and of Christ, and


of angels, and of saints, " are not only painted that they
4

may be shewed as the cherubims were of old in the Temple,


but that they may be adored, as the frequent use of the
Church doth testify," saith Cardinal Cajetan, So Thomas
Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, in his Provincial
Council held at Oxford in the year 1408, established this

3
1
Doctrina est Romanae Ecclesiae, Christi Princeps futura orbis felicitas. Id.
et sanctorum imagines pia religione a part. u. Regul. n. p. 196.
Christianis colendas esse. Lac. Boverius,
4 Non solum
in Orthodoxa Consultat. de Ratione Vera pinguntur ut ostendantur,
sicut cherubim olim in templo, sed ut
Fidei et Religionis amplectenda, part. n.
adorentur ; ut frequens usus ecclesiae tes-
Regul. i. p. 189. edit. Madrid, ann. 1623.
2
Serenissime Carole, spes Anglicanae
tatur. Cajetan. in part. in. Thomae,
Ecclesise. Id. part, i. Regul. iv. p. 58. Quaest. xxv. Art. 3.
X.]
01 1MAUKS.

Constitution folio v/i ng :


" 5 From henceforth let it be taught
commonly and preached by that the cross and the imageall,

of the crucifix, and the rest of the images of the saints, in

memory and honour of them whom they figure, as also their


places and relics, ought to be worshipped with processions,
bendings of the knee, bowings of the body, incensings,
kissings, offerings, lighting of candles, and pilgrimages,
together with all other manners and forms whatsoever, as
1
hath been accustomed to be done in our or our predecessors
times." And in the Roman Catechism set out by the appoint-
6
ment of the Council of Trent, the parish priest is
required
to declare unto his parishioners, " not only that it is lawful
to have images in the church, and to give honour and wor-
ship unto them, forasmuch as the honour which is done unto
them is referred unto the things which they represent, but
also that this hath still been done to the great good of the
And " 7
faithful." images of the saints are put
that the
in churches, as well that may be worshipped, as that they
we, being admonished by their example, might conform our-
selves unto their life and manners."

Now, for the manner of this worship we are told by one


of their bishops, that " it must not only be confessed that
8

the faithful in the Church do adore before the images, as


some peradventure would cautelously speak, but also adore
the image itself, without what scruple you will; yea, they
do reverence it with the same worship wherewith they do
5
Ab omnibus deinceps doceatur com- bono ad hanc usque diem factum decla-
muniter atque prsedicetur, crucem et ima- rabit. Catechism. Roman, part, iii.cap.
ginem crucifix! ceterasque imagines sanc- 2. sect. 14.

torum, in ipsorum memoriam et honorem 7 Sanctorum quoque imagines in tern,


quos figurant, ac ipsorum loca et relli- plis positas demonstrabit, ut et colantur,
quias, processionibus, genuflexionibus, in- et exemplo moniti, ad eorum vitam ac
clinationibus, thurificationibus, deoscula- mores nos ipsos conformemus. Ibid.
tionibus, oblationibus, luminarium accen-
8
Ergo non solum fatendum est, fideles
sionibus, peregrinationibus, nee non
et
in ecclesia adorare coram imagine, ut non-
aliis quibuscunque modis et formis quibus
nulli ad cautelam forte loquuntur, sed et
nostris et predecessorum nostrorum tem-
adorare imaginem, sine quo volueris scru-
poribus consuevit, venerari debere.
fieri

Gulielm. Lyndewode Provincial, lib. v. pulo ; quin et eo illam venerantur cultu,


de Haeretic. cap. Nullus quoque. quo etprototypon ejus propter quod, si
:

6
Non solum autem licere in ecclesia illud habet adorari latria, et ilia latria;
si dulia vel hyperdulia, et ilia pariter
imagines habere, et illis honorem et cul-
tum ejusmodi cultu adoranda est. Jacob.
adhibere, ostendet parochus, cum
honos qui Naclantus, in Epist. ad Roman, cap. i.
illis exhibetur, referatur ad
fol. 42, edit Venet. ann. 1557.
prototypa, verum etiam maximo fidelium
432 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

the thing that is


represented thereby. Wherefore," saith
"
he, if that ought to be adored with Latria, or divine
worship, this also is to be adored with Latria if with Dulia ;

or Hyperdulia, this likewise is to be adored with the same


kind of worship." And so we see that Thomas Aquinas
doth directly conclude, that " 9 the same reverence is to be
given unto the image of Christ and to Christ himself; and
by consequence, seeing Christ is adored with the adoration
of Latria, or divine worship, that his image is to be adored
with the adoration of Latria." Upon which place of Thomas
Friar Pedro de Cabrera, a great master of divinity in Spain,
doth lay down these conclusions " 10 It is
1.
simply and:

absolutely to be said, that holy images are to be worshipped


in churches and out of churches, and the contrary is an
heretical doctrine ;" for explication whereof he declareth that
" that
by this worshipping he meaneth, signs of service and
submission are to be exhibited unto images by embracing,
lights, oblation of incense, uncovering of the head," &c.
and that " this conclusion is a doctrine of faith collected
out of the holy Scripture, by which it
appeareth that things
created, yea, although they be senseless, so that they be
consecrated unto God, are to be adored." 2.
" u
Images
are truly and properly to be adored, and out of an intention
and jiot only the samplers that are repre-
to adore themselves,
sented in them." This conclusion, which he maketh to be
the common resolution of the divines of that side, he opposeth

against Durand and his followers, who held that images


are adored only improperly, because they put men in mind
of the persons represented by them, who are then adored

9
Sic sequitur quod eadem reverentia creatas etiam inanimes, dummodo Deo
exhibeatur imagini Christ! et ipsi Christo. sint sacratae,esse adorandas. Petr. de
Cum ergo Christus adoretur adoratione Cabrera, in part. HI. Thorn. Quaest. xxv.
latriae ; consequens est, quod ejus imago Art. 3. Disput. u. num. 15.
sit adoratione latriae adoranda. Thorn. 11
Imagines sunt vere et proprie ado-
Summ. HI. Quaest. xxv. Art. 3.
part. randae, et ex intentione ipsas adorandi, et
Simpliciter et absolute dicendum
10
non tantum exemplaria in ipsis repraesen-

est, sacras imagines esse venerandas in tata. Haec conclusio est contra Duran-
templis et extra templa; et contrarium dum et sectatores illius ; quorum senten-
est dogma haereticum hoc est, imagi-
: tia a recentioribus censetur periculosa,
nibus exhibenda esse signa servitutis et temeraria, et sapiens haeresim; et M.
submissionis amplexu, luminaribus, ob- Medina hie refert, magistrum Victoriam
latione suffituum, capitis nudatione, &c. reputasse illam haereticam. Sed nostra
Haec conclusio est dogma fidei collectum conclusio est communis Theologorum,
ex sancta scriptura, ex qua constat, res Ibid. num. 32.
\.
I
ob' i MACKS. 4;j;j

before the images, as they had been if there really present.


But this opinion, he saith, is censured by the latter divines
"
to be dangerous, rash, and savouring of heresy ;" yea, and
by Fr. Victoria to be plainly heretical. For " 12 if images
be adored only improperly, they are not to be adored simply
and absolutely; which is a manifest heresy," saith Cabrera.
And " 13 if images were only to be worshipped by way of re-
memoration and recordation, because they make us remember
the samplers which we do so worship as if they had been then

present, it would follow that all creatures should be adored


with the same adoration wherewith we worship God seeing ;

all of them do lead us unto the


knowledge and remembrance
of God, and God is present in all things." 3.
" H The doc-
trine delivered by Thomas, that the image and the sampler

represented by it is to be worshipped with the same act of


adoration, is most true, most pious, and very consonant to
I5
the decrees of faith." This, he saith, is the doctrine not
" but also of " all
only of Thomas and of all his disciples,"

the old schoolmen almost ;" and particularly he quoteth for


it
Capreolus, Paludanus, Ferrariensis, Antoninus,
Cajetan,
Soto, Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Bonaventura,
Ricardus de Mediavilla, Dionysius Carthusianus, Major,
Marsilius, Thomas Waldensis, Turrecremata, Angestus,
Clichtoveus, Turrian, and Vasquez." In a word, " 16 it is
the constant judgment of divines," saith Azorius the Jesuit,
" that the
image is to be honoured and worshipped with
the same honour and worship wherewith that is worshipped
whereof it is an image."
Against this use, or rather horrible abuse, of images,
to what purpose should we heap up any testimonies of holy
Scripture, if the words of the second commandment, uttered

12
Si imagines improprie tantum ado- |
Sed consequens est absurdum. Ergo,
rantur, simpliciter et absolute non ado- Ibid. num. 35.
14
ran tur, neque sunt ad or an da; ; quod est Sententia divi Thomae, quatenus do-
haeresis manifesta. Ibid. num. 34. cet eodem actu adorationis coli imaginem
13
Si imagines solum adorantur reme- et exemplar per illam repraesentatum, est
morative et recordative, quia recordari verissima, piissima, et fidei decretis admo-
nos faciunt exemplarium, quae ita ado- dumconsona. Ibid. Disput. in. num. 56.
15
ramus, ac si essent praesentia ; sequeretur Id. ibid. num. 30.
16
eadem adoratione, qua colimus Deum, Constans est
theologorum sententia,
esse adorandas omnes creaturas, cum om- imaginem eodem honore et cultu honorari
nes in Dei cognitionem et recordationem et coli, quo colitur id cujus est imago. Jo.
nos ducant, et Deus sit in omnibus rebus. Azor. Instit. Moral. Tom. i. lib.
ix.cap.fi.
E E
434 \\SWKU TO A JESUIT'S CHALI.KNOK. [CHAP.

by God's own mouth with thundering and lightning upon


Mount Sinai, may not be heard? Thou shalt not make to
thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing
that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in
the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down to
them, nor worship them. Which thunderclap from heaven
the guides of the Romish Church discerning to threaten
sore that fearful idolatry which daily they commit, thought
fit in wisdom first to conceal the knowledge of this from
the people, by excluding those words out of the Decalogue
that went abroad for common use, under pretence, forsooth,
of including it in the first commandment and then after- ;

wards to put this conceit into men's heads, that this first
commandment was so far from condemning the veneration
of images, that it commanded the same, and condemned the

contrary neglect thereof. And therefore Laurence Vaux, in


his unto this " Who breaketh the first
Catechism, question,
commandment of God by unreverence of God?" frameth
" 17
this answer, They that do not give due reverence to
God and his saints, or to their relics and IMAGES." And
Jacobus de Graffiis, in his explication of the same com-
mandment, specifieth the " due reverence" here required
more particularly, namely, " 18 that we should reverence every
image with the same worship that we do him whose image
it is that is to say, that we impart Latria, or divine
;

worship, to the image of God, or of Christ, or to the sign


of the cross also, inasmuch as it bringeth the passion of
our Lord unto our mind ; and that we use the adoration of
Hyperdulia at the image of the holy Virgin, but of Dulia
at the images of other saints." And can there be found,
think you, among men a more desperate impudency than
this, that not only the practice of this wretched idolatry
should be maintained against the express commandment of
Almighty God, but also that he himself should be made
the author and commander of it, even in that very place
where he doth so severely forbid it, and reveal his wrath

17
Vaux, Catechism, chap. 3. pertiamur; ad sacrae Virginis imaginem
18
Ut unamquamque imaginem eodem hyperduliae, aliorum vero sanctorum duliae
cultu, quoille cujus imago est, veneremur, adoratione adoremus. Jacob, de Graffiis,
id est, ut imagini Dei vel Christi, vel Decision. Aure. Casuum Conscient. part.
etiam crucis signo, prout Dominicam pas-
'

i. lib. ii. cap. 2, sect, penult,


19
sionem ad mentem revocat, latriam im- j
Rom. i. 18.
.|
OK I MA (.!>.

from lieuren <ig(ii-nxf the tmgod&ne** /un/


<>f men, which withhold the truth in
The miserable shifts and silly evasions, whereby they labour
to obscure the light of this truth, have been detected by
others to the full, and touched also in some part by myself
'-"
in another place, where I have shewed, out of Deuteron.
iv. 15, 16, and Rom. i. 23, that the adoring of the very true
God himself in or by an image cometh within the compass
of that idolatry which the word of God condemneth. And
to this truth do the Fathers of the ancient Church give
"
plentiful testimony, in what great account" soever our
" use of
Challenger would have us think that the images"
was with them.
Indeed, in so great account was the use of images among
them, that in the ancientest and best times Christians would
by no means permit them to be brought into their churches:
nay, some of them would not so much as admit the art
of making them ; so jealous were they of the danger,
itself

and careful for the prevention of the deceit, whereby the


simple might any way be drawn on to the adoring of them.
" 21
We
are plainly forbidden," saith Clemens Alexandrinus,
" to exercise that deceitful art. For the Prophet saith, Thou
xhnlt not make the likeness of any thing, either in heaven,
or in Moses commandeth men to
the earth beneath.'
1 '*
" 22

make no image God by art." u For


that should represent t23

in truth an image is a dead matter, formed by the hand


of an artificer. But we have no sensible image made of
any sensible matter, but such an
image as is to be con-
ceived with So his scholar Origen,
the understanding."
Celsus the " 24 Who
writing against philosopher: having his
saith " will not at him after
right wits," he, laugh who,

-'"
Sermon at Westminster before the
House of Commons. ai(T0tjTov,
vorjTov de TO ayaX/ua.
31
Kal ydp otj KO.L diniyopevTai Id. in Protreptic.
i4
dvatpavoov diraTTjXoi opi^eatiai Tts ydp vovv e\tav ov
ov ydp -n-oiTjereis, tprjaiv < TOV fiCTa TOUS TIjXlKOUTOUS Kttt TOfTOVTOl/S
iravTo<i ofioiw/JLa, o<ra ev TU> ovpavia, Kal ev <f>i\o<ro(pia irepl Qeov i; Qewv Xoyous
nna cv T?J yrj KaToa. Clemens Alexand. evop(airro<: ToTs dydXpacri, /cat i;rot OUTOIV
Protreptic. ad Gentes. aj/ctTrc/HTroi/Tos TTJI/ eux^J"! ' ^* T^S TOV-
22
Ouoe/j.iav elicova o Mcoutnjs irapay- Ttaif oi^etos
6</>*
ov tpavrd^cTai 8eti/ dva-
}t\\ci TroieterBat TOIS dvQptoTrois, dvTi- fiaiveiv dirdTOV ft\irou.evov xai <ru/u/3oXou
a 0e<5.
Paedagog. lib. iii. cap. 2. oVTO<s,dva<i>epovT6<i TC e-Tri TOV voovpevov ;
ydp ws a'X?)0wv TO aynX/ua Origen. contra Cels. lib. vii. p. 373.

K F. 2
436 ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

such great philosophical discourses of God or gods, doth


look on images, and either presenteth his
prayer to them,
or by the sight thereof offereth it to him who is conceived

thereby, unto whom he imagineth that he ought to ascend


from that which is seen, and is but a sign or symbol of
him?" And whereas Celsus had brought in that speech of
" *5
Heraclitus, They pray unto these images, as if a man
should enter into conference with his house," and demanded,
" 26 Whether
any man, unless he were a very child, did
think these things to be gods, and not monuments and
images of the gods?" Origen replieth, that " 27 it is not
a thing possible that one should know God and pray to
" 28 did not esteem these to be
images;" and that Christians
divine images, who used not to describeany figure of God,
29
who was invisible and without all
bodily shape;" nor
could endure to worship God with any such kind of service
as this was. In like manner, when the Gentiles demanded
" had no known
of the ancient Christians, ^Why they
images ?" Minucius Felix returneth them for answer again,
" 31
What image shall I make to God, when man himself,
if thou rightly judge, God's image?" 32
These u holy
is
" men
images," saith Lactantius, which vain serve, want all
sense, because they are earth. Now, who is there that under-
standeth not, that it is unfit for an upright creature to be

25
Kat Tots dydXfj.aa-1 Towreoicriv ev- Qelov Qepaireia-s, hoc est, (ut ex verbis

Xpvrat, oKolov CITIS TOIS oo/moicri. Xea"Xi]v- subsequentibus intelligitur) Sid TO ex/cXt-
euoiTo. Heraclit. Ephes. ibid. p. 384, et veiv Kal Ka-racnrav Kal KaTayeiv TTJJ/

apud Clem. Alexand. in Protreptic. ad Tre/oi TO Qelov dprjaKeiav eiri TTJJ/ Totau-
Gent. p. 25, edit. Greco-Lat. ubi statim Tt)v vXrjv OVTUHTL r
ea")(rjfJia rL(r/ui.evriv , oitK
T
subjungitur, H yap oi>xl repaTw&eis ol dve-)(ovTai fiiafiatv Kal dyaXfj-aTcov. Id.
Xt6ou9 TrpotrTpeTTofievoL ; An non enim ibid.
30
sunt prodigiosi qui lapides adorant ? Cur nullas aras habent, templa nulla,
86 nulla tota simulacra? Minuc. Felix in
Tts yap Kal aXXos, et /utj Trdvrri
TavTa fjyetTat 6eous ; aXXa Qewv
VJJTTIOS, Octavio.
dvaQnfiaTa Kal ayaX/zara. Celsus apud
31
Quod enim simulacrum Deo fingam,
Origen. cum, si recte existimes, sit Dei homo ipse
37 Ou SvvaTov koTi Kal yiyvtoffKetv simulacrum ? Ibid.
fJLt]v
32
TOV Beov, Kal TOIS ayaA./u.a<riv evy^ea-Qat. Ipsas imagines sacrae, quibus inanis-
Origen. ibid. simi homines serviunt, omni sensu carent,
28 AXX' ovde 6eias ei/coi/os (lege ei/covas) quia terra sunt. Quis autem rion intelli-
VTroXafj.fidvojj.ev elvai -rd dydXfjLa-ra, (are) gat, nefas esse rectum animal curvari, ut
fj.op<j>iiv dopaTov (0eou) /cat a<ra>/u.dTou /utj adoret terram ? quae idcirco pedibus nos-
$iaypd<t>ovTes Oeou. Id. ibid. tris subjecta est, ut calcanda nobis, non
29
Xpto-Ttavot /cai'Iou^atot OVK dve%ov- adoranda sit. Lactant. Divin. Institut.
TO.I T^ lib. ii. cap. 17-
X. 01- IMAGES 437

bowed down, that he may worship the earth ? which for


this cause is
put under our feet, that it
may be trodden
" ^Wherefore there is no
upon, not worshipped by us."
doubt, that there is no religion wheresoever there is an image.
For seeing religion consisteth of divine things, and nothing
divine is to be found but in heavenly things, images there-
fore are void of religion ; because nothing that is heavenly
can be in that thing which is made of earth."
When ^ Adrian the " had commanded that
Emperor
temples should be made in all cities without images," it

was presently conceived that he did prepare those temples


for Christ, as ^Elius Lampridius noteth in the Life of
Alexander Severus; which is an evident argument that it
was not the use of Christians in those days to have any
images in their churches. And for keeping of pictures out
of the Church, the Canon of the Eliberine or Illiberitane
Council, held in Spain about the time of Constantine the
Great, most plain: " ^It is our mind that pictures
is

ought not to be in the Church, lest that which is wor-


shipped or adored should be painted on walls." Which
hath so troubled the minds of our latter Romanists, that
Melchior Canus sticketh not to charge the Council " 36 not
only with imprudency, but also with impiety," for making
such a law as this. " 37 The
Gentiles," saith St Ambrose,
"
worship wood, because they think it to be the image of
God; but the image of the invisible God is not in that
which is seen, but in that which is not seen." " M God
would not have himself worshipped in stones," saith the

33
Quare non est dubium quin religio optato evenisset, et templa reliqua dese-
nulla ubicunque simulacrum est. Nam
sit, renda. Lamprid. in Alexandro.
35
si religio ex divinis rebus est, divini autem Placuit picturas in ecclesia esse non
nihil est nisi in coelestibus rebus, carent debere, ne quod colitur aut adoratur in pa-
rietibus depingatur. Concil. Elib . cap . 36 .
ergo religione simulacra, quia nihil potest
36 non imprudenter modo,
esse coeleste in ea re quae sit ex terra. Id. Ilia (lex)
ibid. cap. 18. verum etiam impie a Concilio Elibertino
34 lata est de tollendis imaginibus.
Alexander. Imp. Christo templum fa- Canus,
cere voluit, eumque inter deos recipere. loc.Theologic. lib. v. cap. 4, Conclus. iv.
37 Gentiles
Quod et Adrianus cogitasse fertur, qui lignum adorant, quia Dei
templa in omnibus civitatibus sine simu- imaginem putant; sed invisibilis Dei
lacris jusserat fieri, quae hodie idcirco, quia imago non in eo est quod videtur, sed in
non habent numina, dicuntur Adriani, eo utique quod non videtur. Ambros. in
Psal. cxviii. Octonar. x.
quae ille ad hoc parasse dicebatur, sed
38
prohibitus est ab iis qui, consulentes sacra,
Non Deus in lapidibus coli.
vult se

repererant omnes Christianos futures si id Id. Epist. xxxi. ad Valentinianum Imp.


438 ANSWER TO A JKSUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHAT.

same Father in another place; and " 'the Church knoweth 3i

no vain ideas and divers figures of images, but knoweth


the true substance of the Trinity." So St Jerome " 40 We :

worship one image, which is the image of the invisible


omnipotent God." And St Augustine: " 41 In the first
commandment any similitude of God in the figments of
men is forbidden to be worshipped not because God hath ;

not an image, but because no image of him ought to be


worshipped, but that which is the same thing that he is,
(Coloss. i. 15, Heb. i. 3,) nor yet that for him, but with
him." As for the representing of God in the similitude of
u 42
a man, he resolveth, that it is
utterly unlawful to
erect any such image to God in a Christian church."
And touching the danger of images in general, and the
practice of the Church in this matter, thus he writeth :

43
The "
Gentiles worship that which they themselves have
made of gold and silver. But even we also have divers
instruments and vessels of the same matter or metal for
the use of celebrating the Sacraments, which being conse-
cratedby this very ministry, are called holy in honour of
him who for our salvation is served thereby. And these
instrumentsand vessels also, what are they else but the
work of men's hands? Yet have these any mouth, and

39 celebrandorum sacramentorum, quae ipso


Ecclesia inanes ideas et varias nescit
simulacrorum figuras, sed veram novit ministerio consecrata sancta dicuntur, in
Trinitatis substantiam. Id. de Fuga Se- ejus honorem cui pro salute nostra inde
culi, cap. 5. servitur. Et sunt profecto etiam ista in-

strumenta vel vasa quid aliud quam opera


40
Nos unum habemus virum, et unam
veneramur imaginem, quae
manuum hominum ? Veruntamen nun-
imago in-
est
quid os habent, et non loquentur ? Nun-
visibilis et omnipotentis Dei. Hieronym.
lib. iv. in Ezec. cap. xvi. quid oculos habent, et non videbunt?
41
Nunquid eis supplicamus, quia per ea
In primo praecepto prohibetur coli
supplicamus Deo ? Ilia causa est maxi-
aliqua in figmentis hominum Dei simili-
ma impietatis insanae, quod plus valet in
tude non quianon habet imaginem Deus,
;
affectibus miserorum similis viventi forma
sed quia nulla imago ejus coli debet, nisi
quae sibi efficit supplicari, quam quod earn
ilia quae hoc est quod ipse, nee ipsa pro
manifestum est non esse viventem, ut de-
illo, sed cum illo. Augustin. Epist. cxix. beat a vivente contemni. Plus enim va-
ad Januar. cap. 11.
lent simulacra ad curvandam infelicem
42
Tale simulacrum Deo nefas est Chris- animam, quod os habent, oculos habent,
tiano in templo collocare. Id. de Fide et aures habent, nares habent, manus ha-
Symbol, cap. 7- bent, pedes habent ; quam ad corrigen-
43
Hoc enim venerantur quod ipsi ex dam, quod non loquentur, non videbunt,
auro argentoque fecerunt. Sed enim et non audient, non odorabunt, non contrec-
nos pleraque instmmenta et vasa ex hujus- tabunt, non ambulabunt. Id. in Psalm,
inodi materia vel metallo habemus in usimi cxiii. Cone. n.
X.] OK IMAGES

will not speak? Have they eyes, and will not see? Do
we supplicate unto these, because by these we supplicate
unto God ? That is the greatest cause of this mad im-
piety, that the form
unto one living, which maketh
like
it to be
supplicated unto, doth more prevail in the affec-
tions of miserable men, than that it is manifest it doth not
live at all, that it
ought to be contemned by him who is
indeed living. For images prevail more to bow down the
unhappy soul, in that they have a mouth, they have eyes,
they have ears, they have nostrils, they have hands, they have
feet, than to correct speak, they will
it, that they will not
not see, they will not hear, they will not smell, they will
not handle, they will not walk." Thus far St Augustine.
The speech of Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, to this
is memorable: " 44
We have no care to
purpose figure by
colours the bodily visages of the saints in tables, because
we have no need of such things, but by virtue to imitate
11
their conversation. But the fact of Epiphanius rending
the veil that hung in the church of Anablatha is much
more memorable, which he himself, epistle John, in his to

Bishop of Jerusalem, translated by St Jerome out of Greek


into Latin, doth thus recount: " 45 I found there a veil

hanging at the door of the church, dyed and painted, and


having the image as it were of Christ or some saint; for
I do not well remember whose image it was. When,
therefore, I saw this, that contrary to the authority of the
Scriptures the image of a man was hanged up in the
church of Christ, I cut it, and gave counsel to the keepers
of the place that they should rather wrap and bury some
poor dead man in it." And afterwards he entreateth the
Bishop of Jerusalem, under whose government this church
" to 4(i
hereafter that such veils as these,
was, give charge
44
Ou yap TO?S IT'IVO^I TO. crapntKa. -jrpocr- sem in ecclesia Christi contra auctoritatem
TWV dyl(av Old Scripturarum hominis pendere imaginem,
i/U.lV tl/Tl/TTOl/l/, OTl off scidi illud, et magis dedi consiliuni cus-
ttXXa Tiji; TroXiTeiai; avTwv 01 d todibus ejusdem loci, ut pauperem mor-
f.uftl<rQat. Amphiloch. citatus a Patrib. tuum eo obvolverent et efterrent. Epiphan.
Concilii Constantinop. ann. 754. Epist. ad Johan. Hierosol. Tom. i. Oper.
*5
Invent ibi velum pendens in foribus Hieronym. Epist. LX.
46
ejusdcm ecclesiac tinctum atque depictum, Deinceps praecipere, in
ct habens imaginem Christi istiusmodi vela,
quasi Christi vel quae contra re-
sancti cujusdam mm cnim satis meniini
; ligionem nostram vcniunl, non appcmli.
ai.jus imago fucrit. Cum ergo hoc viilis. Id. ibid.
440 ANSWER TO A JESUIT* S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

which are repugnant to our religion, should not be hanged


up in the Church of Christ." Which agreeth very well
with the sentence attributed to the same Father in the
Council of Constantinople: " 47 Have this in mind, beloved
sons, not to bring images into the church, nor into the
cemeteries of the saints, no, not into an ordinary house ;
but always carry about the remembrance of God in your
hearts : for it is not lawful for a Christian man to be
carried in suspense by his eyes and the wanderings of his
mind and with his discourse of the heresy of the Col-
;"

lyridians, which made an idol of the Virgin Mary, as in the


former question hath more largely been declared, to which
he opposeth himself in this manner: " 48 How is not this
course idolatrous and a devilish practice? For the devil,
stealing always into the mind of men under pretence of
righteousness, deifying the mortal nature in the eyes of men,
by variety of arts framed images like unto men. And they
truly who are worshipped are dead; but their images, that
never yet were alive, (for they cannot be said to be dead
that never were alive),
they bring in to be worshipped by
a mind going a-whoring from the one and only God, as
a common harlot stirred with a wicked desire of promis-
cuous mixture, and rejecting the sobriety of the lawful
marriage of one man."
If it be enquired who they were that first brought in
this use of images into the Church, it
may well be an-
swered, that they were partly lewd heretics, partly simple
Christians newly converted from paganism, the customs
whereof they had not as yet so fully unlearned. Of the

47 Kat TOVTW
ev /j.vi'i/j.i)i> e^ere, TeKva QV^TTIV <f>vcriv QeoTroiiav eis o<0aX/ious
aya-TTTjTa, TOW /uj dva(j>epeiv ei/coi/as ETT' dvQpwTrwv, a'yaXjuara Sid
dvSpoeiKe\a
e/c/cXtjo-ias, yaijTe ev TOIS KoifJLt\Ti]pioi<s TWV i iroi/uXias Teyyiav dieypatye. Kai -reQvij-

dyi(ov,(d\\' deifiid [Jivy/nris e-^eTeTovQeov \


nam uev oi irpoarKwovfievoi^ TctMe TOV-
ev TCUS Kapdiais u/xwi/,) aXX' OVTC KCCT' Ttov dyd\fia.Ta. fuiSeTrore' tj<rai/Ta (OI/TC
olnov KOivov. OVK e^earTi ydp X/oi<rTiav<5 yap veKpd dvvavrat yevetrQai TO. /j.t]6e7roTe
oi 6<j)6a\/JL<ov fj.Teiopi^ea-dai KOI /oe/x/3a<r- ^r/o-az/Ta) TrpoGKvvrjTd Trapeiardyovai, did
tJiwv TOV i/ods. Epiphan. citatus a Concil. fioi^evardfrt^ Siavoias UTTO TOU cvos /cat

Constantinop. in Act. vi. Tom. v. Concil. yuoi/ou Qeov' tos j IT o\v KOIVOV iropvi] em
Nicaen. n. TroXXriv aTOiriav Tro\vfJii%'ia<$ epe()i<rdel<ra,
*8
IloOei.' OVK etOtoXoTroioy TO eirtTj;- Kai TO (ruxftpov diroTpi\l/a/JLevjj T^S TOU
ncvfJLaKai TO ey^eipii/ma ciafBoXiKov irpo- ;
evos aj/^/oos eui/o/umv. Epiphan. in Panar.

tpdtrei ydp oiKaiov dei inreiffnvviav ri}v \


Hteres. LXXIX. p. 447.
iai' o ota/3oXov TOW dvOpwiriav, TI}V \
X.]
OF IMAGES. 441

former kind the Gnostic heretics were the principal, who


" 49
had images, some painted in colours, others framed of
gold and silver and other matter, which they said were
the representations of Christ, made under Pontius Pilate,
when he was conversant here among men." Whence Car-
pocrates, and Marcellina, his disciple,
who brought this
idolatrous heresy first to Rome in the days of Pope
" 50
made and of Jesus
Anicetus, having privily images
Paul and Homer and Pythagoras, did cense them and
worship them," as Epiphanius and Augustine do report.
To the latter that observation of Eusebius may be referred,

concerning the image of Christ thought to be erected by


the woman that was cured of the bloody issue
" 51 It : is

no marvel," saith he, " that those of the heathen who of


old were cured by our Saviour, should do such things,

seeing we have seen the images of his Apostles Paul and


Peter, yea, and of Christ himself, kept painted with colours
in tables; for that of old they have been wont, by a
heathenish custom, thus to honour them whom they counted
to be their benefactors or saviours."
But by whomsoever they were first
brought in, certain
it is
they that proved a dangerous snare unto
simple the

people, who quickly went a-whoring after them contrary to


the doctrine which the Fathers and Doctors of the Church
did deliver unto them. And therefore St Augustine,
writing of the manners of the Catholic Church against the
Manichees, directly severeth the case of such men from
the common cause and approved practice of the Catholic

owo-i de eiKovcts ev^aiypdrfiovs oid quaedam Marcellina, quae colebat imagi-


oi/, Tivas potius) 8e CK
Tii/es (vel nes Jesu et Pauli et Homeri et Pytha-
Kal dpyvpov Kai Xonr^s uXtjs, gorse,adorando incensumque ponendo.
a-Ttva eKTVTTWfJiaTd <f)a<riv e!vai TOV '!?;- Augustin. de Haeres. cap. 7
<rou, Kal TavTa VTTO HOVTIOV HtXaTov 51
Kat TOUS TraXai
Qavfjiaa-Tov ov&ev,
yeyevijvQai TCC e/CTUiraj/uctTa TOV avTOu
/OOS TOV crut-
'lri<rov, OTC evedrl/neL -rut TWV dvQpioTrwv
yeVei. Epiphan. in Panar. Haeres. xxvu. TU>V diroaToXaov avTOv Tas ei>coj/as Ilau-
p. 52, ex Irenaeo, lib. i. advers. Haeres, Xou K-airieT/[)oi;,/cai auTou 5rj TOV XpiGTov,
cap. 24. Sid xpw/uaVajj/ ev ypa<j>als (rw^o/xe'j/as IOTTO-
so
Epiphan. in Anaceph. p. 525, de pi1<ra/j.v t cos CIKOV TU>V TraXaitov d-Tra/oaX-
Carpocrate. TOUTOU yeyovev T) ev 'Pw'/xt; Xa'/CTtov ola erwr^/jas eOviKy trvv^Qeia
MapKeXXiW. eiKovas oe Tronjo-as ev TOVTOV Tifiav ciwQoTwv TOV
Kpvt(>f) Trap' eauToTs
'l))<roG Kai llav\ov KOI Euseb. Histor. Ecclesiast. lib.
Tpoirov.
Mvfinyopov, TauTav ttivfua. KO.C vii. cap. 18.
vci. SectaD ipsius fuissc traditur socia
442 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [cilAP.

Church: " 52
Do not collect unto saith "such
me," he,
professors of the name of Christ, as either know not or

keep not the force of their profession. Do not bring in


the companies of rude men, which either in the true reli-
gion itself are superstitious, or so given unto their lusts,
that they have forgotten what they did promise unto God."
Then, for an instance of the first, he allegeth that he him-
self did " know many which were worshippers of graves and
and at last concludeth " Now this I advise
pictures ;" :
you,
that you cease to speak evil of the Catholic Church by
upbraiding it with the manners of those men whom she
herself condemneth, and seeketh every day to correct as
naughty children." This also gave occasion to Serenus,
Bishop of Marseilles, 200 years after, to break down the

images in his church, when he found them to be thus


abused; which fact of his though Pope Gregory disliked,
because he thought that images might profitably be retained
as laymen's books, yet in this he commended his zeal,
that he would by no means sufferthem to be worshipped.
" 53
I saith " that it came of late to our
certify you," he,
hearing that your brotherhood, seeing certain worshippers
of images, did break the said church-images and threw them

52
Nolite mihi colligere professores no- nesciunt, saltern in parietibus videndo le-
minis Christiani, nee professions suae vim gant quae legere in codicibus non valent.
aut scientes aut exhibentes. Nolite con- Tua ergo fraternitas et illas servare et ab
sectari turbas imperitorum, qui vel in ipsa earum adoratu populum prohibere de-
vera religione superstitiosi sunt, vel ita buit, quatenus et literarum nescii haberent
libidinibus dediti, ut obliti sint quicquid unde scientiam historiae colligerent, et

promiserint Deo. Novi multos esse se- populus in picturae adoratione minime
et picturarum adoratores, &c. peccaret. Gregor. Regist. lib. vii. Epist.
pulchrorum
Nunc vos illud admoneo, ut aliquando cix. ad Serenum. Vide etiam lib. ix.
ecclesiae Catholicae maledicere desinatis Epist. ix. ad eundem. Nota etiam, in

vituperando mores hominum, quos et ipsa Epistola Greg, ad Secundinum, lib. vii.
Ind. n. Epist. LIV. verba ilia, (Imagi-
condemnat, et quos quotidie tanquam
malos filios corrigere studet. Augus- nes, quas tibi dirigendas per Dulcidium
tin. de Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae, diaconum rogasti, misimus. Unde valde
cap. 34.
nobis tua postulatio placuit, &c.), et quae
53 Praeterea indico dudum ad nos per- sequuntur usque ad epistolae finem, deesse
venisse, quod fraternitas vestra quosdam
in omnibus Oxoniensibus Epistolarum
MSS. excepto uni-
imaginum adoratores aspiciens, easdem Gregorii exemplaribus
ecclesiae co, in quo ad calcem omnium
rejicitur
imagines confregit atque proje-
" Sen -
cit. Et quidem zelum vos, ne quid manu- Epistolarum cum hac inscriptione :

factum adorari possit, habuisse laudavi- tentia B. Gregorii Papae de Imaginibus,

mus ; sed frangere easdem imagines non excerpta de decretis Canonum." Unde
debuisse judicamus. Idcirco cnim pictura colligimus hoc ex libro. Isiclor. Merca-
in ecclesiis adhibetur, ut hi qui literas toris.
X.] OK tMA(.l s

away. And surely we commended you that you had that


zeal, that nothing made with hands should be worshipped :

but yet we judge that you should not have broken those
images. For painting is therefore used in churches, that
they which are unlearned may yet by sight read those things
upon the walls which they cannot read in books. There-
fore your brotherhood ought both to preserve the
images,
and to restrain the people from worshipping of them, that
both the ignorant might have had whence to gather the
knowledge of the history, and the people might not sin in
worshipping the picture."
There would be no end if we should lay down at large
the fierce contentions that afterwards arose in the Church
touching this matter of images; the Greek emperors, Leo
Isaurus, Constantinus Caballinus, Nicephorus, Stauratius,
Leo Armenus, Michael Balbus, Theophilus, and others,
opposing them in the East and on the other side, Gregory
;

the Second and Third, Paul the First, Stephen the Fourth,
Adrian the First and Second, Leo the Third, Nicholas the
First, and other popes of Rome, as stiffly upholding them
in the West. In a Council of 338 Bishops, held at Con-
stantinople in the year of our Lord 754, they were solemnly
condemned: in another Council of 350 Bishops, held at
Nice in the year 787, they were advanced again, and the
veneration of them asmuch commended. This base decree
of the second Nicene Council, touching the adoration of
it were not
images, although by the hundredth part so gross
as that which was afterwards invented by the popish school-
men, yet was it
rejected, as repugnant to the doctrine of
the Church of God, by the princes and bishops of England
first, about the year 792, and by Charles the Great after-

ward, and the Bishops of Italy, France, and Germany, which


by his appointment were gathered together in the Council
of Frankfort in the year of our Lord 794.
The four books, which by his authority were published
against that Nicene Synod and the adoration of images
defended therein, are yet to be seen; as the resolution also
of the doctors of France, assembled at Paris by the com-
mand of his son Ludovicus Pius, in the year 824, and the
book of Agobardus, Bishop of Lyons, concerning pictures
and images, written about the same time; the argument
444 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

whereof is thus delivered by Papirius Massonus, the setter


out of it: " 54 Detecting most manifestly the errors of the
Grecians touching images and pictures, he denieth that they
ought to be worshipped ; which opinion all we Catholics do
allow, and follow the testimony of Gregory the Great con-
cerning them." This passage, together with the larger view
55
of the contents of this treatise following afterwards, the
Spanish Inquisitors, in their Index Expurgatorius, com-
mand to be blotted out ; which we find to be accordingly
performed by the divines of Collen, in their late corrupt
56
edition of the great Bibliotheque of the ancient Fathers.
Gretser professeth, that he " "extremely wondereth that this
judgment of the book of Agobardus should proceed from a
catholic man. For Agobardus," saith he, "in that whole book
doth nothing else but endeavour to demonstrate, although
with a vain labour, that images are not to be worshipped."
" 58 And who be these
Grecians, whose errors touching images
Agobardus doth refell, as this publisher saith ? Surely these
Grecians are the Fathers of the Nicene Council, who decreed
that images should be adored and worshipped ; against whom
whosoever disputeth doth mainly dissent from right believers."
To which blind censure of the Jesuit we may oppose not
59
only the general judgment of the ancient Almains, his own
countrymen, who four or five hundred years
within these
did flatly disclaim this image-worship, as by Nicetas Cho-
niates is witnessed; but also the testimony of the divines
and historians of England, France, and Germany, touching

Agobardi ab homine catholico pro-


54
Graecorum errores de imaginibus et libro

picturis manifestissime detegens, negat fectum miratus sum; nam Agobardus


eas adorari debere; quam sententiam toto libello nihil aliud facit quam quod
omnes catholic!
probamus, Gregoriique demonstrare nititur, quamvis casso co-
Magni testimonium de illis sequimur. natu, imagines non esse adorandas. Jac.

Papir, Masson. Praefat. in Agobardi Gretser. de Cruce, lib. i. cap. 58.


58
Opera, edit. Paris, ann. 1605. Et quinam sunt Graeci, quorum de
55
Expungantur omnia quae sub hoc imaginibus errores Agobardus refellit, ut
titulo, De
Imaginibus^ continentur. In- editor ait ? Nimirum Graeci isti sunt Pa-
dex Librorum Expurgatorum, Bernardi tres Nicaeni Concilii, qui sanxerunt ima-
de Sandoval et Roxas Card, de consilio gines adorandas et colendas esse; contra
Senatus Generalis Inquisit. Hispan. ex- quos qui disputat, is ab orthodoxis toto
cus. Madrid, ann. 1612. coelo discordat. Ibid.
56 59
Magna Bibliothec. Veter. Patrum, 'Ap/JLeviois yap Kai 'AXa/itu/oFs kiri-
Tom. ix. part. i. edit. Colon, ann. 1618, U>V yiav etKovio
uTai. Nicet. Choniat. Annal.
p. 548 et 551.
57
Vehementer profecto hoc judicium de lib. ii.
OK IMAGKS. ! 15

60
the Nicene Council in particular, rejecting it as a Pseudo-
" f>1
that images should be
Synod, because it concluded
worshipped which thing," say our chroniclers, " the Church
;

of God doth utterly detest." And yet for all that we have
news lately brought us from Rome, that " 62 it is most
certain and most assured that the Christian Church, even
the most ancient, the whole and the universal Church, did
with wonderful consent, without any opposition or contradic-
tion, worship statues and images :" which, if the cauterized
conscience of a wretched apostata would give him leave to
utter, yet the extreme shamelessness of the assertion might
have withheld their wisdoms, whom he sought to please
thereby, from giving him leave to publish it.

But it
may be I seek for shamefacedness in a place
where it is therefore, leaving them
not to be found; and
to their images, like to like, (for they that make them are
like unto them, and so is every one that trusteth in them),
I proceed from this point unto that which folio weth.

OF FREE-WILL.

THAT man hath Free-will, is not by us gainsaid though ;

we dare not give him so large a freedom as the Jesuits pre-


sume to do. Freedom of will we know doth as essentially
belong unto a man as reason itself; and he that spoileth him
of that power doth in effect make him a very beast. For
this is the difference betwixt reasonable and unreasonable
as Damascen noteth " The unreason-
!
creatures, rightly :

60 Hincmar. Remens. lib. contra Hinc- aut contradictione, statuas ac imagines


mar. Laudunens. cap. 20 ; Egolismens. veneratam esse, est certissimum ac pro-
Monacn. in Vita Caroli Magni; Annal. batissimum. M. Anton, de Dominis, de
Fuldens. Ado, Regino, et Hermann. Con- Consilio sui reditus, sect. 23.
63
tract, in Chronic, ann. 794. Psal. cxv. 8, and cxxxv. 18.

Imagines adorari debere; quod om- "OQev KCLI TO. a\oya OVK eltrlv av-
61 1

nino ecclesia Dei execratur. Simeon. Teov<Tia' ayovrai yap juaXXof vtro TT/S
Dunelmens. Roger. Hoveden. et Matth. </>uo-ea>s, tjirep ayovai.
816 ov&e dwriXe-
Westmonaster. Histor. ann. 792 vel 793. yovtri TTJ <vo-iKJ7 opefcei, a'XX' afia <fy>
6 X~
62 'O
Ecclesiam porro Christianam, etiam Qu>(T( TtVOI, OpfJLUXTl IT/DOS TTJ1> 7T/OalI/.

antiques imam, totam, ac universalem, oe avQpwiro<i \oyiKos tov ayei p.a\\ov TV\V
summo consensu, absque ulla oppositione <j>i'i(rtv, ijrrre/o aiyeTai.
oio KOI opeyofievot,
ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CH AL I.ENC K. [CHAT

able are rather led by nature, than themselves leaders of it ;

and therefore do they never contradict their natural appetite,


but as soon as they affect anything they rush to the prose-
cution of it but man, being endued with reason, doth rather
:

lead nature, than is led by it and therefore, being moved ;

Avith appetite, if he will, he hath power to restrain his


appe-
tite or to follow it." Hereby he is enabled to do the things
that he doth neither by a brute instinct of nature, nor yet
by any compulsion, but by advice and deliberation ; the
mind first taking into consideration the grounds and circum-
stances of each action, and freely debating on either side
what were best to be done or not done, and then
in this case
the will inclining itself to put in execution the last and con-
clusive judgment of the practical understanding. This liberty
we acknowledge a man may exercise in all actions that are
within his power to do, whether they be lawful, unlawful,
or indifferent
; whether done by the strength of nature or
of grace ; works of grace our free-will
for even in doing the

suspendeth not her action, but being moved and guided by


doeth which is fit for her to do ;
grace, that grace not taking
away the liberty, which cometh by God's creation, but the

pravity of the will, which ariseth from man's corruption.


In a word, as we condemn 2 Agapius, and the rest of that
mad sect of the Manichees, for bringing in such a kind of
" offend
necessity of sinning, whereby men were made to
against their wills ;*" so likewise with Polychronius, and other
men of understanding, we defend, that " 3 virtue is a volun-
tary thing and free from all necessity ;" and with the
author of the books de Vocations Gentium, attributed unto
u 4 we both and
Prosper, believe feel by experience that
grace is so powerful, that yet we conceive it no
way to be
violent."
But it is one thing to enquire of the nature, another
to dispute of the strength and ability, of free-will. We say
with Adamantius, in the dialogues collected out of Maximus
3 'A8e<nroTOv
etirep e.oi, e yap 77 a/oe-nj, /cat eKova-iov,

TIJVopeiv ? dKo\ovQ?)<Tai avrri. Jo. KCLL dvdy KYIS Tra'o-Tjs e\evQepov. Polychron.
Damascen. Orthodox. Fid. lib. ii. cap. 27, in Can tic. p. 93, edit. Meursii.
4
edit. Gnec. vel 44 Latin. Hanc quippe abundantiorem gratiam
2
-re /cat aKovra<s TOUS dv- ita credimus atque experimur potentem,
'Az/ety/q;

Qpu>Trov<s TTTaieiv SiaTeiveTai. Phot. Bib- ut nullo modo arbitremur esse violentam.
liothec. num. 179. Prosp. de Vocat. Gent. lib. ii.
cap. 26.
X,.]
OF FUKK-\\ 1 1.1,.
H-7

'God " r
made
against Marcionitcs, that
tlie
angi-ls and men
be endued them with
auT(~ov(Tiov<3, but not iravTe^ovcyiovs ;
freedom of will, but not witb ability to do nil things. And
now since the fall of Adam we say further, that freedom of
will remaineth still
among men, but the ability which once
fl

it had to
perform spiritual duties and things pertaining to
salvation is quite lost and For " 7 who is extinguished.
there of us," saitli St " wbich would that
Augustine, say
by the sin of the first manfree-will is utterly perished from
mankind ? Freedom indeed is perished by sin ; but that
freedom which was in paradise, of having full righteousness
with immortality, for which cause man's nature standeth
in need of God's grace, according to the saying of our Lord,

If the Son shall free you, then ye shall be free indeed;


namely, free to live well and righteously. For free-will is
so far from having perished it
they in the sinner, that by
sin, all with delight, and for the
they especially who sin
love of sin, that pleaseth them which liketh them." When
we deny therefore that a natural man hath any free-will unto
good, by a natural man we understand one that is without
Christ, and destitute of his renewing grace; by free-will,
that which the philosophers call TO a thing that
e<p' wlv,
is in our own
power to do ; and by good, a theological not
a philosophical good, bonum vere spirituale et salutare,
" a and tending unto salvation."
spiritual good This,
then, is word teacheth us to put
the difference which God's
betwixt a regenerate and an unregenerate man. The one
9
is alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord; and
so enabled to 9 yield himself unto God, as one that is alive

5
Tous ayyeXoi/s KO.L -rows di/6/3to7roi/s arbitrium de humano genere ? Libertas
auTe^outrtous Xeyw UTTO 0eov yeyevfjcrOai, quidem peccatum ; sed ilia qua*
peril per
d\\' ov Travrefyvcriovs. 'O irepl TOV in paradiso fuit, habendi plenum cum

avTe^ovcriov Xoyos, TOVTCCTTI TOV e<p' tj/uu/j immortalitate justitiam, propter quod
TT/OOOTTJI/ [lV
;

X 61 j i"rj)''> i 6flTTl TL <f>'


t <s natura humana divina indiget gratia,
I'lpjuv' TroXXot yap oi dvTifiaivovTes' Sev- dicente Domino, Si vos Filius libera-
Tepav oe, Tiva CCTTL TU. k<$> J)jU.u/, *cai T'LVIOV verit, tune vere liberi eritis ; utique liberi
eov<riav e^ofiev. Nemesius Emessenus ad bene justeque vivendum. Nam libe-
Episcop. de Natura Hominis, cap. 39. rum arbitrium usque adeo in peccatore
Orig. Dial. in. contra Marcion. non periit, ut per illud peccent, maxime
6
Potentiam proximam et activam in- omnes qui cum delectatione peccant et
telligo ; non remotam, quae mere passiva amore peccati, hoc eis placet quod eis
est. libet. August, contra duas Epist. Pela-
7
Quis autem nostrum dicat, quod gian, lib. i.
cap. 2.
8 "
primi hominis peccato perierit liberum Rom. vi. 11. Ibid. ver. 13.
448 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

from the dead, and his members as instruments of right-


eousness unto God ; 10 having his fruit unto holiness, and
the end everlasting life: the other is a mere n stranger

from the life of God, dead in trespasses and sins; and


so no more able to lead a holy life acceptable unto God,
than a dead man is to perform the actions of him which is
alive.
He may live indeed the life of a natural and a moral
man, and so exercise the freedom of his will, not only in
natural and civil, but also in moral actions, so far as con-
cerneth external conformity unto those notions of good and
evil that remain in his mind; in respect whereof the very
13
Gentiles themselves, which have not the law, are said to
do by nature the things contained in the law : he may
have such fruit as not only common honesty and civility,
but common gifts of God's Spirit likewise will yield; and
in regard thereof he may obtain of God temporal rewards
appertaining to this transitory life, and a lesser measure
of punishment in the world to come yet until he be quick- :

ened with the life of grace and u married to him who is


raised from the dead, he cannot bring forth fruit unto God,
nor be accepted for one of his servants. This is the doctrine
of our Saviour himself, John xv. 4, 5, As the branch cannot
bear fruit of except it abide in the vine; no more
itself,
can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the
branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do
NOTHING, that is, nothing truly good and acceptable unto
God. This is the lesson that St Paul doth every where
l5
inculcate: IJcnow that in me, that is, in my Jlesh, dwelleth
no good thing. 16 The natural man perceiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ;
neither can he understand them, because they are spiritually
17
discerned. Without faith it is impossible to please God.
}8
Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving, is nothing
pure ; but even fheir mind and conscience is defiled. Now,
w the end
seeing of the commandment is charity, out of a
pure heart, and of a good conscience, and offaith unfeigned ;
15 16
10
Rom. vi. 22.
11
Ephes. iv. 18. Rom. vii. 18. 1 Cor. ii. 14.
12
Ephes.
13
Rom. 14.
" Hebr. xi. 6.
13
Tit. i. 15.
ii.
1, 5. ii.

14 19
Tim.
Rom. vii. 4. 1 i. 5.
X,.] OF FREE-WILL. 449

seeingthe first beginning, from whence every good action


should proceed, is a sanctified heart, the last end the seeking
of God's glory, and faith working by love must intercur
betwixt both; the moral works of the unregenerate, failing
sofoully both in the beginning, middle, and end, are to
be accounted breaches rather of the commandment than
observances, depravations of good works rather than per-
formances. For howsoever these actions be in their own
kind good and commanded of God, yet are they marred in
the carriage, that which is bonum being not done bene; and
so, though in regard of their matter they may be accounted

good, yet for the manner they must be esteemed vicious.


The
Pelagian heretics were wont here to object unto our
forefathers, as the Romanists do now-a-days unto us, both
the examples of the heathen, " 20 who being strangers from
the faith" did " abound with
notwithstanding, as they said,
virtues," and St Paul's testimony also concerning them,
Rom. " ai
ii. 14, 15, by which they laboured
prove, that to
even such as were strangers from the faith of Christ might
yet have true righteousness, because that these, as the
Apostle witnessed, naturally did the things of the law." But
will you hear how St took Julian the
Augustine up Pelagian
for making this " ^Herein hast thou
objection? expressed
more evidently that doctrine of yours, wherein you are ene-
mies unto the grace of God which is given by Jesus Christ
our Lord, who taketh away the sin of the world; bringing
in a kind of men which
may please God without the faith
of Christ, by the law of nature. This is it for which the
Christian Church doth most of all detest you." And again :

it far from us to think that true virtue should be


20 Sed
acerbissimi gratiae hujus inimici, placere possit sine Christi fide, lege na-
exempla nobis opponitis impiorum, quos turae. Hoc est unde vos maxima Christiana

dicitis alienos a tide abundare virtutibus. detestatur Ecclesia. Ibid.


23
Aug. contra Julian, lib. iv. cap. 3. Sed absit, ut sit in aliquo vera vir-
81
Per hos enim probare conatus es, tus, nisi fuerit Justus ; absit autem, ut sit
etiam alienos a fide Christi veram posse Justus vere, nisi vivatex fide; Justus enim
habere justitiam ; eo quod isti, teste apo- ex fide vivit. Quis porro eorum qui se
stolo, naturaliter qua; legis sunt faciunt. Christianos haberi volunt, nisi soli Pela-
Ibid. giani, aut in ipsis etiam forte tu solus,
22
Ubi quidem dogma vestrum, quo estis justum dixerit infidelem, justum dixerit
inimici gratiae Dei, quae datur per Jesum impium, justum dixerit diabolo manci-
Christum Dominum nostrum, qui tollit patum ; sit licet ille Fabricius, sit licet
peccatum mundi, evidentius expressisti ; Fabius, sit licet Scipio, sit licet Regu-
introducens hominum genus, quod Deo lus ? Ibid.

FF
4-50 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [cHAP.

in any one, unless he were righteous; and as far, that one


should be truly righteous, unless he did live by faith ; for
the just doth live by faith. Now, which of them that would
have themselves accounted Christians, but the Pelagians alone,
or even among them perhaps thou thyself alone, would say
that an infidel were righteous, would say that an ungodly
man were righteous, would say that a man mancipated to
the devil were
righteous although ;Fabricius, he were
although he were Fabius, although he were Scipio, although
he were Regulus?" And whereas Julian had further de-
" 24 If a heathen man do clothe the
manded, naked, because
it is not of faith is it therefore sin ?" St Augustine
answereth absolutely, " Inasmuch as it is not of faith, it is
sin; not because the fact considered in itself, which is to
clothe the is a sin ; but of such a work not to
naked, glory
in the Lord, none but an impious man will deny to be a sin."
For howsoever " 25 in itself this natural compassion be a good
work, yet he useth this good work amiss that useth it unbe-
lievingly, and doth this good work amiss that doth it unbe-
lievingly ; but whoso doth anything
amiss sinneth surely.
From whence it is to be gathered, that even those good
works which unbelievers do are not theirs, but his who
maketh good use of evil men ; but that the sins are theirs
whereby they do good things amiss, because they do them
not with a faithful, but with an unfaithful, that is, with a
foolish and naughty will. Which kind of will no Christian
doubteth to be an evil tree, which cannot bring forth but
evil fruits, that is to say, sins only. For all that is not of
1'
faith, whether thou wilt or no, is sin. This and much more
to the same purpose doth St Augustine urge against the
heretic Julian, prosecuting at large that conclusion which

24
Si gentilis, inquis, nudura operuerit, aliquid, profecto peccat. Ex quo r
colli-

nunquid quia non est ex


peccatum
fide, gitur, etiam ipsa bona opera, quse faciunt
est ? Prorsus, in quantum non est ex infideles, non ipsorum esse, sed illius qui

fide, peccatum est ; non quia per seipsum bene utitur malis :
ipsorum autem esse
factum, quod est nudum operire, peccatum peccata, quibus et bona male faciunt;
est; seddetalioperenonin Domino glori- |
quia ea non fideli, sed infideli, hoc est,
ari, solus impius negat esse peccatum. Ib. stulta et noxia faciunt voluntate, qualis
25
Quod si et ipsa (misericordia) per voluntas, nullo Christiano dubitante, ar-
seipsam natural i compassione opus est bor est mala, quae facere non potest nisi
bonum, etiam isto bono male utitur qui fructus malos, id est, sola peccata. Omne
infideliter utitur, et hoc bonum male facit enim, velis nolis, quod non est ex fide,

qui infideliter facit :


qui autem male facit peccatum est. Ibid.
X,.] OF FREE-WILL. 451

he layeth down in his book of the acts of the Palest iiu-


Council against Pelagius " 26 How much soever the works
:

of unbelievers be magnified, we know the sentence of the


Apostle to be true and invincible, whatsoever is not of
faith is sin:" which maketh him also in his retractations
that the " philo-
27
to correct himself for saying in one
place
sophers shined with the light of virtue, who were not endued
1'
with true piety.
The likedoth St Jerome pronounce against
sentence
those " 28
not
who, believing in Christ, did yet think them-
selves to be valiant and wise, temperate or
just, that they
might know that no man doth live without Christ, without
whom all is accounted vice."
virtue And Prosper against
Cassianus, a patron of the free-will of the semi-Pelagians :

" ^It 11
saith " most
appeareth, he, manifestly, that there
dwelleth no virtue in the minds of the ungodly, but that
all works be unclean and polluted; who have wisdom,
their
not spiritual, but animal not heavenly, but earthly ; not
;

Christian, but diabolical; not from the Father of light,


but from the prince of darkness while by those very things, :

which they should not have had but by God's giving,


they
are made subject to him who did first fall from God.
11

" 3
Neither ought we therefore to imagine that the be-
ginnings of virtues be in the treasures of nature, because
many commendable things are found in the minds of ungodly
men, which do proceed indeed from nature; but because they
26
Quantumlibet opera infidelium prae- sed terrenam ; non Christianam, sed dia-

dicentur, apostoli sententiam veram no- bolicam non a Patre luminum, sed a
;

vimus et invictam, Omne quod non est principe tenebrarum dum per ea ipsa,
:

ex fide, peccatum est. Id. de Gestis con- quae non haberent nisi dante Deo, sub-
tra Pelagium, cap. 14. duntur ei qui primus recessit a Deo.
27
philosophos, non vera pietate
Quod Prosper contra Collator, cap. 13.
30
praeditos, dixi virtutis luce fulsisse. Id. Nee ideo existimare debemus in na-
Retract, lib. i. cap. 3. turalibus thesauris principia esse virtutum,
28
Sententiam proferamus adversus eos quia multa laudanda reperiuntur etiam in
qui, in Christum non credentes, fortes et ingeniis impiorum,qua ex natura quidem
sapientes, temperantes se putant esse et prodeunt ; sed quoniam ab eo qui naturam

justos ; ut sciant nullum absque Christo condidit recesserunt, virtutes esse non pos-
vivere, sine quo omnis virtus in vitio est. sunt. Quod enim vero illuminaturn est
Hieronym. in Galat. cap. iii. lumine lumen est, et quod eodem lumine
29
Manifestissime patet in impiorum caret nox est ; quia sapientia hujus mundi
animis nullam habitare virtutem, sed stultitia est apud Deum. Ac sic vitium
omnia opera eorum immunda esse atque est quod putatur esse virtus, quandoquidern
polluta ; habentium sapientiam, non spi- stultitia est quod putatur esse sapientia.
ritualem, sed animalem; non coelestem, Ibid.
F F2
452 AKSWEll TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

have departed from him that made nature, cannot be ac-


counted virtues. For that which is illuminated with the
true light is light, and that which wanteth that light is

night because the wisdom of this world is foolishness with


;

God. And so that is vice which is thought to be virtue,


as that is foolishness which is thought to be wisdom."
Hitherto also pertaineth that sentence produced by him out
of St Augustine^s works
" 31 The whole life of unbelievers
:

is sin, and there is nothing good without the chiefest good ;

for where there is wanting the acknowledgment of the eternal


and unchangeable truth, there is false virtue even in the
best manners." Which he elegantly expresseth in verse, as
well in his 8 1st Epigram, as in his Poem against the Pelagians,
wherein of natural wisdom he writeth thus :

32
Et licet eximias studeat pollere per artes,
Ingeniumque bonum generosis moribus ornet;
Coeca tamen finem ad mortis per devia currit,
Nee vitse seternse veros acquirere fructus

De falsa virtute potest; unamque decoris


Occidui speciem mortali perdit in sevo.
Omne etenim probitatis opus, nisi semine verse
Exoritur fidei, peccarum est, inque reatum
Vertitur, et sterilis cumulat sibi gloria poenam.

The
author of the book de Vocatione Gentium, by some
wrongly attributed to St Ambrose, to Prosper by others,
delivereth the same doctrine in these words: " ^Although
there have been some who by
their natural
understanding
have endeavoured to resist vices, yet have they only bar-
renly adorned this temporal life, but not profited at all
unto true virtues and everlasting bliss. For without the
worship of the true God even that which seemeth to be
virtue is sin; neither can any man please God without God.

31
Omnis infidelium vita peccatum est, temporis vitam steriliter ornavit, ad veras

et nihil est bonum sine summo bono. Ubi autem virtutes aeternamque beatitudinem
enim deest agnitio seternae et incommuta- non profecit. Sine cultu enim veri Dei,
bilis veritatis, falsa virtus est, etiam in etiam quod virtus videtur esse, peccatum
ex August. Sen tent, est ; nee placere ullus Deo sine Deo po-
optimis moribus. Id.

.cvi. et Epigram. LXXXI. test. Qui vero Deo non placet, cui nisi

32
sibi et diabolo placet ? A
quo cum homo
Id. de Ingratis, cap. 16. non voluntate, sed voluntatis
spoliaretur,
M Etsi fuit qui naturali intellectu co- sanitate privatus est. Prosp. de Vocatione
Gent. lib. i.
cap. 7
natus sit vitiis reluctari, hujus tantum
X,.]
OF FREE-WILL.

And he that doth not please God, whom doth he please but
himself and the devil ?
by whom, when man was spoiled, he
was deprived not of his will, but of the sanity of his will/''
" ^Therefore if God do not work in us, we can be
par-
takers of no virtue for without this good there is nothing
;

good, without this light there is nothing lightsome, without

this wisdom there is nothing sound, without this righteous-


ness there is nothing right." So Fulgentius, in his book
of the Incarnation and Grace of Christ: " ^If unto some
who did know God, and yet did not glorify him as God,
that knowledge did profit nothing unto salvation, how could

they be just with God, which do so keep some goodness in


theirmanners and works, that yet they refer it not unto
the end of Christian faith and charity ? In whom there
may be indeed some, good things that appertain to the equity
of human society ; but because they are not done by the
love of God, profit they cannot." And Maxentius, in the
Confession of his Faith: " ^We
believe that natural free-
will hath ability to nothing but to discern and desire else
carnal or secular
things only, which not with God, but
with men perad venture, may seem glorious; but for the
things that pertain to everlasting life, that it can neither
think, nor will, nor desire, nor effect, but by the infusion
and inward operation of the Holy Ghost." And Cassiodorus,
in his Exposition of the Psalms: " 37 On the evil part indeed
there is an execrable freedom of the will, that the sinner may
34
Qui si non operatur in nobis, nullius aliud valere credimus, nisi ad discernenda
possumus esse participes virtutis. Sine tantum et desideranda carnalia sive secu-
hoc quippe bono nihil est bonum ; sine laria; qua? non apud Deum, sed apud ho-

hac luce nihil est lucidum ; sine hac sa- mines possunt fortassis videri gloriosa ad :

pientia nihil sanum ; sine hac justitianihil ea vero quae ad vitam aetemam pertinent,
rectum. Ibid. cap. 8. nee cogitare, nee velle, nee desiderare, nee
35
Quod si quibusdam cognoscentibus perficere posse, nisi per infusionem et in-
Deum, nee tamen sicut Deum glbrifican- operationem intrinsecus Spiritus Sancti.
tibus, cognitio ilia nihil profuit ad salu- Jo. Maxent. in Confessione suae Fidei.
37 Est quidem in mala parte execrabilis
tem,quomodo hi potuerunt justi esse apud
Deum, qui sic in suis moribus atque ope- libertas arbitrii, ut praevaricator Creato-
ribus bonitatis aliquid servant, ut hoc ad rem deserat, et ad vitia se nefanda conver-
finem Christianas fidei caritatisque non tat ; in bona vero parte arbitrium liberum,
referant? Quibus aliqua quidem bona, Adam peccante, perdidimus, ad quod nisi
quae ad societatis humanse pertinent aequi- per Christi gratiam redire non possumus,
tatem, inesse possunt ; sed quia non cari- dicente Apostolo, Deus est enim qui ope-
tate Dei fiunt, prodesse non possunt. ratur in 'Vobis et velle et perficere, pro

Fulg. de Incarn. etGrat. Christi, cap. 26. bona vohmtate. Cassiodor. in Psalm
Liberum naturalc arbitrium ad nihil
454 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

forsake his Creator and convert himself to wicked vices;


but on the good part, by Adam's sinning we have lost free-
will, unto which, otherwise than by the grace of Christ,
we cannot return according to the saying of the Apostle,
;

It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do


of his good pleasure. Philip, ii. 13."
The first presumptuous advancer of free-will, contrary
to the anciently received in the Church,
doctrine is by
Vincentius Lirinensis noted to be Pelagius the heretic. For
" ^who " before that
ever," saith he, profane Pelagius pre-
sumed the virtue of free-will to be so great, that he did
not think the grace of God to be necessary for the helping
of it in good things at every act?" For maintaining of
which ungodly opinion both he and his disciple Celestius
were condemned by the censure of the 243 Bishops assembled
in the great Council of Carthage, Anno Domini 418, " until
39

they should acknowledge, by a most open confession, that by


the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord we are

holpen not only to know, but also to do righteousness at


every act; so that without it we can have, think, say, do
nothing that belongeth to true and holy piety." Wherewith
Pelagius being pressed, stuck not to make this profession :
" 40
Anathema to him who either thinketh or saith that the

grace of God, whereby Christ came into this world to save


sinners, is not necessary, not only at every hour or every
moment, but also at every act of ours; and they who go
about to take away this are worthy to suffer everlasting
punishment." Four books also did he publish in defence
of free-will, to which he thus referreth his adversaries for

38
Quis unquam ante profanum ilium apud Prosperum contra Collator, cap. 5,

Pelagiutn tantam virtutem liberi prae- et Respons. ad Object, vm. Gallorum;


sumpsit arbitrii, ut ad hoc in bonis rebus ubi addit, Hanc constitutionem contra

per actus singulos adjuvandum inimicos gratiae Dei totum mundum am-
riam Dei gratiam non putaret ? Vincent. plexum esse.
Lirinens. advers. Hares. Commonk. i. 40 Anathema
qui vel sentit vel dicit

cap. 34. gratiam Dei, qua Christus venit in hunc


39 Donee apertissima confessione fa- mundum peccatores salvos facere, non
teantur, gratia Dei per Jesum Christum solum per singulas horas aut per singula
Dominum nostrum, non solum ad cog- momenta, sed etiam per singulos actus
noscendam verum etiam ad faciendam jus- nostros non esse necessariam ; et qui hanc

titiam, nos per actus singulos adjuvari ; conantur auferre, poenas sortiuntur aeter-

ita ut sine ea nihil versa sanctaeque pietatis ! nas. Pelag. apud Augustin. lib. i. de
habere, cogitare, dicere, agere valeamus. Gratia Christi, contra Pelag. ct Celest.

Synod. African. Epist. ad Zosimum Pap. cap. 2.


XI.]
OK FREE- WILL. 455

further satisfaction in this matter: " H Let them read the


late work which we were forced to set out the other day
for free-will; and they shall perceive how unjustly they go
about to defame us with the denial of grace, who through-
out the whole context almost of that work do perfectly and
entirely confess both free-will and grace." Yet for all this
he did but equivocate in the name of grace, " 42 under an
ambiguous generality hiding what he thought, but by the
term of grace breaking the envy and declining the offence"
which might be taken at his doctrine, as St Augustine well
observeth. For by grace he did not understand, as the
Church did in this question, the infusion of a new quality
of holiness into the soul, whereby it was regenerated, and
43
the will of evil made good; but, first, the possibility of

nature, that is to the natural freedom of will, which


say,
every one hath received from God by virtue of the first
creation. Against which St Augustine thus opposeth him-
"
Why is there so much presumed of the possibility
44
self:
of nature? It is wounded, it is maimed,is vexed,
it it

is lost: it hath need of a true confession, not of a false

defence." And Prosper, speaking of the state of man's


free-will after Adam's fall :

45
hinc arbitrium per devia lapsum
Claudicat, et coeds conatibus inque ligatis
Motus inest, manet ergo voluntas
non error abest :

Semper amans aliquid quo se ferat; et labyrintho


Fallitur, ambages dubiarum ingressa viarum.
Vana cupit, vanis tumet et timet: omnimodaque
Mobilitate ruens, in vulnera vulnere surgit.

of doctrine and
Secondly, Bygrace he understood the grace
instruction, whereby the mind was informed in the truth

Legant etiam recens meum opuscu- Augustin. de


41 43 Gestis
Pelag. apud
lum, quod pro Hbero nuper arbitrio edere contra Pelag. cap. 10, et in Epist. xcv.

compulsi sumus, et agnoscent quam ini- Vide eundem Augustin. de Grat. et lib.
que nos negatione gratiae infamare gestie- Aibitr. cap. 13, et Serm. xi. de Verbis

rint, qui per totum pene ipsius textum Apostoli.


operis perfecte atque integre et liberum 44
Quid tantura de naturae possibilitate
arbitrium confitemur et gratiam. Id. ibid, ? Vulnerata, sauciata, vexata,
praesumitur
cap. 41. perdita est. Vera confessione,
non falsa
43
Sub ambiguageneralitate quid sen- defensione opus habet. August, de Natur.
tiretabscondens, gratia; tamen vocabulo ct Grat. cap. 53.
frangens invidiam offensionemque decli- 45
nans. Prosper dc Ingratis, cap. 27.
Augustin. ibid. cap. 37.
456 ANSWEIl TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

out of the word of God ; which by Prosper is thus objected


to his followers :

46
aliud non est vobiscum gratia, quam lex,

Quamque Propheta monens, et quam doctrina ministri.

St Augustine therefore saith well " Let them


47
Unto whom :

read and understand, let them behold and confess, that not
by the law and doctrine sounding outwardly, but by an
inward and hidden, by a wonderful and unspeakable power,
God doth work in the hearts of men not only true revelations,
but good wills also." And thereupon the African Fathers,
in the Council of Carthage, enacted this canon: "^Who-
soever shall say that the grace of God by Jesus Christ our
Lord doth for this cause only help us not to sin, because
by the understanding of the commandments is revealed
it

and opened unto us, that we may know what we ought to


affect, what and that by it there is not wrought
to shun ;

in us, that we may and be enabled to do that which


also love
we know should be done let him be anathema." Thirdly,
;

under this grace he comprehended not only the external


49
revelation by the word, but also the internal by the illumi-
nation of God's Spirit. Whereupon he thus riseth up against
his " 50 We confess that this is not, as thou
adversary: grace
thinkest, in the law only, but in the help of God also. For
God doth help us by his doctrine and revelation, whilst he
openeth the eyes of our hearts, whilst he sheweth us things

46
Id. ibid. cap. 20. Vide eundem in nobis praestari, ut quod faciendum cog-
Epist. ad Ruffinum, non procul ab initio, noverimus, etiam facere diligamus atque
et Augustin. de Haeres. cap. 88, et lib. i. de valeamus, anathema sit. African. Patr.
Gratia Christi contra Pelag. cap. 8 10. in Synod. Carthagin. Can. iv.
47 49 de Grat. Christ.
Legant ergo et intelligant, intuean- Augustin. lib. i.

tur atque fateantur, non lege atque doc- contra Pelag. cap. 7 and 41.

(gratiam) nos, non ut tu pu-


trina insonante forinsecus, sed interna 50
Quam
atque occulta, mirabili ac ineffabili po- tas, in lege tantummodo, sed et in De
testate operari Deum in cordibus homi- esse adjutorio confitemur. Adjuvat enim
num non solum veras revelationes, sed nos Deus per doctrinam et revelationem
etiam bonas voluntates. Augustin. ibid, suam, dum cordis nostri oculos aperit,

cap. 24. dum nobis, ne praesentibus occupemur,


48
Quisquis dixerit gratiam Dei per futura demonstrat, dum diaboli pandit
Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum insidias, dum nos multiformi et ineffabili
dono haec
propter hoc tan turn nos adjuvare ad non gratiae coelestis illuminat. Qui
peccandum, quia per ipsam nobis reve- dicit, gratiam tibi videtur negare? An
latur et aperitur intelligentia mandato- et liberum hominis arbitrium et Dei
runi, ut sciamus quid appetere, quid gratiam confitetur? Pelag. ibid. cap.
vitare dcbeamus ; non autem per illam 7.
X,.] OK FREE-WILL. 457

to come, that we be not holden with things present, whilst


he disco vereth the snares of the devil, whilst he enlighteneth
us with the manifold and unspeakable gift of his heavenly
grace. He that saith these things* doth he seem unto thee
to deny grace? or doth he confess both the free-will of
man and the grace of God too ?" And yet in all this, as
St Augustine M he doth but " confess that
rightly noteth,
grace whereby God
doth shew and reveal what we ought
to do; not that
whereby he doth grant and help that we
may do." And 52
in other places of his writings he
therefore
" that our
plainly affirmeth, very prayers are to be used for
nothing but this, that the doctrine may be opened unto us
by divine revelation, not that the mind of man may be hoi pen
that he may also accomplish by love and action that which
he hath learned should be done." Fourthly, to these he
further added the grace of remission of sins. For the Pela-
" ^that man's
gians said, nature, which was made with
free-will, might be sufficient to enable us that we might
not sin, and that we might fulfil righteousness; and that
this is the grace of God, that we were so made, that we

might do this by our will, and that he hath given us the help
of his law and commandments, and that he doth pardon
the sins past to those that are converted unto him; that
in these
things only the grace of God was to be acknow-
ledged, and not in the help given unto all our singular
And " M
actions." so said, that that grace of God
they
which is
given by the faith of Jesus Christ, which is neither

51
I line
itaque apparet, hanc eum gra- nam quae condita est cum libero arbitrio ;

tiam qua demonstrat et revelat


confiteri, eamque Dei gratiam, quia sic conditi
esse
Deus quid agere debeamus ; non qua sumus, ut hoc voluntate possimus ; et
donat atque adjuvat ut agamus ; cum ad quod adjutorium legis mandatorumque
hoc potius valeat legis agnitio, si gratiae suorum dedit; et quod ad se conversis
desit opitulatio, ut fiat mandati praevari- peccata praeterita ignoscit ; in his solis
catio. Augustin. ibid. cap. 8. esse Dei gratiam deputandam, non in ad-
52
Ipsas quoque orationes, ut in scriptis jutorio nostrorum actuum singulorum. Id.
suis apertissime affirmat, ad nihil aliud de Gestis contra Pelagium, cap. 35.
adhibendas opinatur, nisi ut nobis doc- 54
Dicunt gratiam Dei, quae data est
trina etiam divina revelatione aperiatur ; per fidem Jesu Christi, quae neque lex
non ut adjuvetur mens hominis, ut id, est neque natura, ad hoc tan turn valerc,

quod faciendum esse didicerit, etiam ut peccata praeterita dimittantur, non ut


dilectione et actione perficiat. Id. ibid, futura vitentur, vel repugnantia supe-
cap. 41. rentur. Id. de Gratia et Libero Arbitrio,
53
Ut non peccemus, impleamusque cap. 13. Vide ejusdum lib. i. dc Grat.
justitiam, posse sufficere naturam huma- Christi contra Pelag. cap. 2.
458 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

law nor nature, is effectual only to this, that sins past may
be remitted, not that sins to come may be avoided, or when
they make resistance may be vanquished." Whereupon St
Augustine thus encountereth Julian the Pelagian heretic :

" 55
Thou, according to your custom, which descendeth from
your error, dost not acknowledge grace but in the remission
of sins, that now from henceforth a man himself by his free-
will may make himself righteous. But so saith not the
Church, which all crieth that which it hath learned from
a good master, Lead us not into temptation"

Lastly, this was the common doctrine of the 56


Pelagians,
57
and accounted to be one of the principal blasphemies of
that sect, that they held " the of God to be
grace given
according to men's merits.'" abhorring Which was " 58
so
from the Catholic doctrine, and opposite to the grace of
Christ,"" that when it was objected to Pelagius in the Dios-

politan Synod, held in Palaestina by the Bishops of the


East, he durst not avow it, but was forced to accurse it,
lest otherwise he should have been accursed himself. " But
that he deceitfully cursed it, the books written by him after-
wards do shew wherein he defendeth nothing else, but that
;

the grace of God is given according to our merits." Which


Prosper, treading in St Augustine's steps, doth thus express :

M Objectum est aliud; ipsum dixisse magistrum,

Quod meritis hominum tribuatur gratia Christi,


Quantum quisque Dei donis se fecerit aptum.
Sed nimis adversum hoc fidei, nimiumque repugnans
Esse videns, dixit se nou ita credere, et illos
Daranari dignos quorum mens ista teneret.

Quo cernis, cum


judicibus damnantibus ista
Consensisse reum; nee quenquam hsec posse tueri.

55 Tu vestro more, qui de vestro de- mum et subtilissimum germen aliarum,

scendit errore, non agnoscis gratiam, nisi qua dicunt gratiam Dei secundum merita
in dimissione peccatorum; ut jam de hominum dari. Prosper in Epist. de
cetero per liberum arbitrium ipse homo Grat. et Lib. Arbitr. ad Ruffinum.
se ipsum fabricet justum. Sed non hoc 58 alienum a Catholica
Quod sic est
dicit ecclesia, quae clamat tota, quod didi- doctrina, et inimicum gratiae Christi, ut
cit a magistro bono, Ne nos inferas in nisi hoc objectum sibi anathematizasset,
tentationem. Id. lib. ii.
postremi operis ipse inde anathematizatus exisset. Sed
contra Julianum, a Claud. Menardo edit, fallaciter eum anathematizasse posteriores
non procul a fine. ejus indicant libri; in quibus omnino
56
Id. De dono Perseverant. cap. 2 and nihil aliud defendit, quam gratiam Dei
20. De Gratia et Lib. Arbitr. cap. 5. secundum merita nostra dari. Augustin.
De Hicresib. cap. 88, &c. de Grat. Lib. Arbitr. cap. 5.
et
57 Ex his una est blasphemia, ncquissi-
59
Prosper dc Ingratis, cap. I).
XI.] OK I'UKE-WILI.. 459

Qua? tamen ipse suis rursum excoluisse libellis

Detegitur, reprobum in sensum fallendo reversus.

And in this also did the Pelagians betake themselves unto


their old coverts of the grace of nature, the grace of mercy
in forgiving of sins, the grace of instruction and revelation,
and such other shifts. For " 60 when it is demanded of
saith St Augustine, " what
them," grace Felagius did think
was given without any precedent merits, when he anathema-
tized those who say that the grace of God is given according
to our merits,
they answer, that the grace which is without
any precedent merits is the human nature itself, wherein we

are created; forasmuch as before we were, we could not


deserve anything that we might be." Then afterward per-
ceiving what an idle thing it was to confound grace and
nature thus 61 " that the
together, they said, only grace
which was not according to our merits was that whereby
a man had his sins forgiven him;" for they did not think
that a sinner could rightly be said to merit anything save
God's displeasure.
But that at which they all aimed in general was this,
" 62 That
grace was only a kind of mistress to free-will;
and that by exhortations, by the law, by doctrine, by the
creatures, by contemplation, by miracles, and by terrors

outwardly, it shewed itself to the


judgment thereof; whereby
every man, according to the motion of his will, if he did
seek, might find; if he did ask, might receive; if he did
knock, might enter in." And thus, saith Pelagius, doth
God " 63 work in us to will that which is good, to will that

60 Cum ab istis quaeritur, quam gratiam confiteri, quod quacdam libero arbitrio

Pelagius cogitaret sine ullis praecedenti- sit magistra;seque per cohortationes,


bus meritisdari, quando anathematizabat per legem, per doctrinam, per creaturam,
eos qui dicunt gratiam Dei secundum per contemplationem, per miracula, per-
merita nostra dari ; respondent, sine ullis que terrores extrinsecus judicioejusosten-
praecedentibus meritis ipsam
gratiam dat; quo unusquisque secundum volun-
humanam esse naturam, in
qua conditi tatis suae motum, si quaesierit, inveniat;
sumus :
neque enim antequam essemus, recipiat ; si pulsaverit, introeat.
si petierit,

mereri aliquid poteramus ut essemus. Prosper in Epist. ad Ruffin. de Grat. et


Augustin. Epist. cv. ad Sixtum. Lib. Arbitr.
61 63
Dicunt Pelagiani, hanc esse solam Operatur in nobis velle quod bonum
non secundum merita nostra gratiam, qua est, velle quod sanctum est ; dum nos ter-
homini peccata dimittuntur. Id. de Grat. renis cupiditatibus deditos, et mutorum
et Lib. Arbitr. cap. 6. more animalium tantummodo praesentia
R2
Intellcctum est enim saluberrimc- diligente-s, futura? ^lome magnitudinc ct
quc perspectum, hoc tantum eos dc gratia praemiorum pollicitationc succendit ; dum
460 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [cHAl.

which is
holy : whilst finding us given to earthly lusts, and,
like brute beasts,
affecting only present things, he inflameth
us with the greatness of the glory to come and with promise
of rewards ; whilst by the revelation of his wisdom he raiseth
up our stupified will to the desire of God, whilst he per-
suadeth us to all that good is." To this instructing and

persuading grace Pelagius doth


the exciting of attribute
the will; but the converting of it unto God, which followeth
afterward, he ascribeth wholly to the freedom of the will
" 64 He that runneth unto " and
itself. God," saith he,
desireth to be ruled by God, hanging his will upon God's
will,he who by adhering unto him continually is made,
according to the apostle, one spirit with him, doth not this
but out of the freedom of his will. Which freedom whoso
useth aright, doth so commit himself wholly to God and
mortifieth all his own will, that he may say with the

Apostle, / live but Christ liveth in me,


now, yet not I,
and doth put his heart into God's hand, that God may
incline it whither it shall please him." Here have you
the full platform laid down of Pelagius's doctrine touching
the conversion of a sinner. First, he supposeth a possibility
in nature,whereby a man may will and do good. Secondly,
a corruption in act, whereby a man doth will and do the
contrary. Thirdly, an exciting grace from God, whereby
the mind is enlightened and the will persuaded, upon consi-
deration of the promises and threats propounded, to forsake
that lewd course of life, and to will and do the things that
are good and holy. Fourthly, an act of the free-will thus
prepared by God's exciting grace, whereby a man, without
any further help from God, doth voluntarily yield unto
thesegood motions and so " runneth unto God, desireth
;

to be ruled by him, hangeth his will upon God's will, and

by adhering unto him is made one spirit with him." Fifthly,

revelatione sapientiae in desiderium Dei eo sit spiritus ; non hoc nisi de arbitrii

stupentem suscitat voluntatem, dum nobis efficit libertate. Qua qui bene utitur, ita
suadetomne quod bonum est. Pelag. se totum tradit Deo omnemque suam
apud Augustin. lib. i. de Grat. Christi mortificat voluntatem, ut cum apostolo
contra Pelag. cap. 10. possit dicere, Vivo autem jam non ego,
64
Qui currit ad Deum, et a Deo se regi vivit autem in me Christus ; ponitque cor

cupit, id est, voluntatem suani ex ejus suum in manu Dei, ut illud quo voluerit
voluntate suspendit; qui ei adhserendo Deus ipse declinet. Pelagius apud Au-
jugiler unus, secundum apostolum, cum gustin. dc Gratia Christi, lib. i.
cap. 22, 23.
X,.] OF FKEE-WILL. 4C1

an assisting grace, whereby God guideth the will thus con-


verted, and inclineth the heart whither it pleaseth him.
We see kinds of grace here commended unto us
three

by Pelagius: the first, a natural grace,


as he fondly termed
it, bringing with it a bare
possibility only to will and do
good which he said was not given according to merits,
;

because he held it to be given at the very beginning of


man's being, before which he could not possibly merit any-
thing the second, an exciting or persuading grace, im-
:

"
parted unto such as were given to earthly lusts, and, like
1
brute beasts, affected only present things;' who being in
that case, were far from meriting any good thing at God's
hands; and in that regard he affirmed, that this grace like-
wise was given without any respect to precedent merits: the
third, an assisting grace, by which God doth guide and
incline the heart of the converted sinner to the doing of all

good ; and this he maintained to be given as a reward to


that act of the free-will whereby it
yielded to the persuasions
of the former exciting grace, and so did actually convert
Now, this is " the presumption" which St
65
itself to God.

Augustine condemneth so much in these men, that they


durst say, " we work to merit that God may work with us :"
that " 66
would first to God that it might be
they give
recompensed to them again ; namely, they first give somewhat
out of their free-will, that grace might be rendered to them
" 67 that our
again for a reward:" that they were of opinion,
merit consisted in this, that we were with God, and that his

grace was given according to this merit, that he should also


be with us that our merit should be in this, that we do seek
:

him; and according to this merit, his grace was given that
we should find him." For they that followed Pelagius, refining
herein a little the doctrine of their master, and delivering it
in somewhat a more plausible manner, declared that ^the

65
Nihil sic evertit hominum praesump- sumus cum Deo ; ejus autem gratiam
tionem dicentium, Nos facimus, ut me- secundum hoc meritum dari, ut sit et ipse
reamur cum quibus faciat Deus. August, nobiscum item meritum nostrum in eo
:

contra duas Epist. Pelagian, lib. iv. cap. 6. esse, quod quaerimus; et secundum hoc
66 meritum dari ejus gratiam, ut inveniamus
Priores volunt dare Deo, ut retribua-
tur eis; priores utique dare quodlibet ex eum. Id. deGrat. et Libero Arbitr. cap. 5.
68 Ibi enim
libero arbitrio, ut sit gratia retribuenda vos, ut video, ponere jam
pro praemio. Ibid. coepistis merita gratiam praccedentia, quod
67
Meritum nostrum in eo esse, quod est petere, quaerere, pulsare; ut his me-
462 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

merits, which they held to go before grace and to procure


11
grace, "asking, seeking, and knocking;
were and that
" 69
grace was given, not according to the merit of our
good works," which they did acknowledge to be an effect,
and not a cause of this grace, " but of our good will 11 only:
" 11 " the
because, they said, good will of man praying
went before, and the will of man believing went before
that, that according to these merits the grace of God hear-
ing might follow after.
11
And all this they did under colour
of maintaining free-will against the Manichees ; for which
they urge much that testimony of the Prophet Isaiah, i. 19,
20, If ye be willing and hearken unto me, ye shall eat
the good things of the land ; but if ye refuse, and will
not hearken unto me, the sword shall consume them. But
" 70 what doth this 11
profit them? saith St Augustine, "see-

ing they do not so much defend free-will against the Mani-


chees, as extol it against the Catholics. For so would they
have that understood which is said, If ye be willing and
hearken unto me, as if in that very precedent will there
should be the meriting of the subsequent grace; and so
grace should be now no grace, which is no gratuity when it
is rendered as due. But if they would so understand that
which is said, If ye be willing, that they would also confess
that he doth prepare that good will, of whom it is written,
The prepared by the Lord; they should use this
will is

testimony and not only vanquish the old heresy


like Catholics,
11
of the Manichees, but also crush the new of the Pelagians.
Besides the professed Pelagians, who directly did deny
original sin> there arose others in the Church in St Augus-

ritis debita ilia reddatur, ac sic gratia liberum arbitrium. Sic enim volunt in-
inaniter nuncupetur. Id. contra Julian. telligi quod dictum est, Si volueritis et
Pelagian, lib. iv. cap. 8. audiveritis me, tanquam in ipsa praece-
69 Dicunt enim, etsi non datur gratia dente voluntate sit consequents meritum
secundum merita bonorum operum, quia |
gratia? ; ac si gratia jam non sit gratia,
per ipsam bene operamur ; tamen secun- |
quae non est gratuita, cum redditur debita.
dum meritum bonee voluntatis datur, Si autem sic intelligerent quod dictum

quia bona voluntas (inquiunt) praecedit est,Si volueritis, ut etiam ipsam bonam

orantis, quam praecessit voluntas creden- voluntatem ilium praeparare confiterentur,


tis ; ut secundum haec merita gratia se- |
de quo scriptum est, Praeparatur voluntas

quatur exaudientis Dei. Id. de Grat. et a Domino; tanquam Catholici uterentur


Lib. Arbitr. cap. 14. hoc testimonio, et non solum haeresim
70
Quid eis hoc prodest? quandoqui- veterem Manichaeorum vincerent, sed no-
dem non tarn contra Manichaeos defen- vam Pelagianorum contererent. Id. con-

dunt, quam contra Catholicos extollunt tra duas Epist. Pelagian, lib. iv. cap. 6.
XT.
I
OF Kiir.K-wn.i..

tine's days, that were tainted not a little with their errors
in this point of grace and free-will ; as namely one Vitalis
in Carthage, and the semi-Pelagians, as they are commonly
called, in France. For the first held, that " 7i
God did
work in us to will by his Scriptures, either read or heard
by us; but that to consent unto them, or not consent, is so
in our power, that if we will, it may be done; if we will
not, we may make the operation of God to be of no force
in us. For God doth work," said he, " as much as in him
is, that we may will when his word is made known unto us;
but if we will not yield unto it, we make that his operation
shall have no profit in us." Against him St Augustine
disputeth largely in his 107th Epistle, where he maketh
this to be the state of the question betwixt them " ^Whe- :

ther grace doth go before or follow after the will of man,


that is to say," as he further explaineth it, " whether it be
therefore given us because we will, or by it God doth work
even this also, that we do will." The worthy doctor main-
taineth, that grace goeth before and will unto worketh the
good, which he strongly proveth, both by the word of God,
and by the continual practice of the Church in her prayers
and thanksgivings for the conversion of unbelievers. ^For
" if thou dost saith " that we are to
confess," he, pray for
them, surely thou dost pray that they may consent to the
doctrine of God with their will freed from the power of
darkness. And thus it will come to pass, that neither men
shall be made to be believers but by their free-will, and
yet shall be made believers by his grace, who hath freed

71
Per legem suam, per scriptures suas sam Deus etiam hoc efficiat ut velimus.
Deum operari ut velimus, quas vel legi- Ibid.
mus vel audimus ; sed eis consentire vel 73 Si fateris pro eis orandum, id utique
non consentire ita nostrum est, ut si veli- orandum fateris, ut doctrinae divinae arbi-
mus fiat ; si autem nolimus, nihil in nobis I
trio liberato a tenebrarum potestate con-
operationem Dei valere faciamus. Ope- sentiant. Ita fit ut neque fideles fiant
ratur quippe ille, dicis, quantum in ipso nisi libero arbitrio ; et tamen illius gratia
1

est,ut velimus, cum nobis nota fiunt ejus fideles fiant, qui eorum a potestate tene-
eloquia ; sed si eis acquiescere nolumus, brarum liberavit arbitrium. Sic et Dei
nos ut operatio ejus nihil in nobis prosit gratia non negatur, sed sine ullis huma-
eificimus. Id. Epist. cvri. ad Vita- nis praecedentibus mentis vera monstra-
lem. tur; et liberum ita defenditur, ut humi-
72 Utrum hffic an litate solidetur, non elatione praecipitetur
praecedat gratia
subsequatur hominis voluntatem, hoc arbitrium ; et qui gloriatur, non in homi-
est, (ut planius id eloquar,) utrum ideo ne, vel quolibet alio vel seipso, sed in
nobis detur, quia volumus, an per ip- Domino glorietur. Ibid.
464 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

their will from the power of darkness. Thus both God's


grace is not denied, but is shewed to be true, without any
human merits going before it; and free-will is so defended
that it is made solid with humility, and not thrown down

headlong by being lifted up; that he that rejoiceth may


not rejoice in man, either any other or yet himself, but in
the Lord." And again: " 74 How doth God expect the
wills of men that they should prevent him, to whom he

might give grace; when we do give him thanks not unde-


servedly in the behalf of them, whom not believing, and
persecuting his doctrine with an ungodly will, he hath pre-
vented with his mercy, and with a most omnipotent facility
converted them unto himself, and made them willing of
unwilling? Why do we give him thanks for this, if he
himself did not this?" ""Questionless we do not pray to
God, but feign that we do pray, if we believe that not he,
but ourselves, be the doers of that which we pray for.
Questionless we do not give thanks to God, but feign that
we give thanks, if we do not think that he doth the thing
for which we give him thanks. If deceitful lips be found
in any other speeches of men, at leastwise let them not be
found in prayers. Far be it from us, that what we do
beseech God to do with our mouths and voices, we should
deny that he doth it in our hearts; and, which is more
grievous, to the deceiving of others also, not conceal the
same in our disputations ; and whilst we will needs defend
free-will before men, we should lose the help of prayer

74
Quomodo Deus exspectat voluntates saltern in orationibus non sint. Absit,
hominum, ut praeveniant eum, quibus det ut quod facere Deum rogamus oribus et
gratiam ; cum gratias ei non immerito vocibus nostris, eum facere negemus cor-
agamus de quibus non ei credentibus,
iis, dibus nostris ; et, quod est gravius ad alios
et ejus doctrinam voluntate impia perse- decipiendos, hoc non taceamus disputa-
quentibus, misericordiam praerogavit ; eos- tionibus nostris; et dum volumus apud

que ad seipsum omnipotentissima facili- homines defendere liberum arbitrium,


tate convertit, ac volentes ex nolentibus apud Deumperdamus orationis auxilrum,
fecit ? ut quid ei inde gratias agimus, si et gratiarum actionem non habeamus ve-

hoc ipse non fecit ? Ibid. ram, dum veram non agnoscimus gratiam.
75 Prorsus non oramus
Deum, sed orare Si vere volumus defendere liberum arbi-

nos fingimus, si nos ipsos non ilium cre- trium, non oppugnemus unde sit libe-
dimus facere quod oramus. Prorsus non rum. Nam qui oppugnat gratiam, qua
gratias Deo agimus, sed nos agere fingi- nostrum ad declinandum a malo et faci-
mus, siunde illi gratias agimus, ipsum endum bonum liberatur arbitrium, ipse
facere non putamus. Labia dolosa si in suum adhuc vult esse captivum.
arbitrium
hominum quibuscunque sermonibus sunt, Ibid.
XI. I
OK r EKE- WILL

with God, and not have true giving of thanks whilst wr


do not acknowledge true grace. If we will truly defend
free-will, let us not oppugn that by which it is made free.
For whoso oppugneth grace, whereby our will is made
free to decline from evil and to do good, he will have his
will to be still captive." Thus doth St .Augustine deal
with Vitalis, to whom he saith, " 76 I do not believe indeed
that thou art a Pelagian heretic ; but so I would have thee
to be, that no part of that error may pass unto thee, or be
left in thee."
The doctrine of the semi-Pelagians in France is related

by Prosper Aquitanicus and Hilarius Arelatensis, in their


several to St Augustine of this argument.
Epistles written
" 77
do saith
" that all men were
They agree," Hilarius,
lost in Adam, and that from thence no man by his proper
will can be freed but this they say is agreeable to the
;

truth, or answerable to the preaching of the word, that


when means of obtaining salvation is declared to such
the
as are cast down, and would never rise again by their own

strength, they by that merit, whereby they do will and


believe that they can be healed from their disease, may
obtain both the increase of that faith and the effecting of
their whole health." And " 78 that grace is not denied when
such a will as this is said to go before it, which seeketh
a physician, but is not of itself otherwise able to do
only
anything. For as touching that place, as he hath distri-
buted to every one the measure of faith, and other like
testimonies, they would have them make for this, that he
should be holpen that hath begun to will, but not that this
also should be given unto him that he might will." Prosper
in his poems doth thus deliver it :

76 haereticum quidem Pelagianum


Ego posse sanari, et ipsius fidei augmentum
te esse non credo ; sed ita esse volo, ut et totius sanitatis suae consequantur effec-
nihil illius ad te transeat vel in te relin- turn. Hilar. Epist. ad Augustin.

quatur erroris. Ibid. 78


jjec negari gratiam, si praecedere
n Consentiunt omnem hominem in dicatur talis voluntas, qua tantum medi-
Adam periisse, nee inde quenquam posse cum quaerat, non autem quicquam ipsa
proprio arbitrio liberari ; sed id conve-
j am va leat. Nam ilia testimonia, ut est
niens asserunt veritati vel congruum prae- mud, S i cut un icuique partitus est mensu-
dicationi, ut cum prostratis et nunquam ram fidei, et s i m ili a , ad id volunt valere,
suis viribus surrecturis annunciatur obti- ut adjuvetur qui coeperit velle, non ut
nendae salutis occasio, eo quo
merito, I

et j ain donetur ut velit. Ibid,


voluerint et crediderint a suo morbo se
G (i
ICG ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

79 Gratia qua Christi populus sumus, hoc cohibetur


Limite vobiscum, et formam hanc ascribitis illi :

Ut cunctos vocet ilia quidem invitetque; nee ullum


Praeteriens, studeat communem adferre salutem

Omnibus, et totum peccato absolvere munduin:


Sed proprio quemque arbitrio parere vocanti,
Judicioque suo raota se extendere mente
Ad lucem oblatam; quse se non subtrahat ulli,
Sed cupidos recti juvet, illustretque volentes.
Hinc adjutoris Domini bonitate magistra
Crescere virtutum studia; ut quod quisque petendum
Mandatis didicit, jugi sectetur amore.
Esse autem edoctis istam communiter aequam
Libertatem animis, ut cursum explore beatum
Persistendo queant; finem efFectumque petitum
Dante Deo, ingeniis qui nunquam desit honestis.
Sed quia non idem est cunctis vigor, et variarum
Illecebris rerum trahitur dispersa voluntas ;

Sponte aliquos succumbere, qui potuissent


vitiis

A lapsu revocare pedem stabilesque manere.

Against these opinions St Augustine wrote his two books,


of the Predestination of the Saints, and of the Gift of Per-
severance, in the former whereof he hath this memorable
divers others " 80
hear the word of
passage among Many :

truth ; but some do believe, others do contradict. There-


fore these have a will to believe, the others have not. Who
is who would deny it? But seeing the
ignorant of this?
will is some prepared by the Lord, to others not, we
to
are to discern what doth proceed from his mercy, and what
from his judgment. That which Israel did seek, saith the
Apostle, he obtained not ; but the election hath obtained it,
and the rest were blinded, Rom. xi. 7. Behold mercy and
judgment mercy in the election which hath obtained the
;

righteousness of God, but judgment upon the rest that were

79 autem consecuta est, ceteri vero excoecati


Prosper de Ingratis, cap. 10.
80 Multi audiunt verbum veritatis ; sed sunt, &c. Ecce misericordia et judicium ;
alii credunt, alii contradicunt. Volunt misericordia in electione quae consecuta est

ergo isti credere, nolunt autem illi. Quis justitiam Dei, judicium vero in ceteros
hoc ignoret ? ? Sed cum
quis hoc neget qui exco3cati sunt et tamen illi, quia vo-
:

non praeparetur vo-


aliis praeparetur, aliis luerunt, crediderunt ; illi, quia noluerunt,

luntas a Domino, discernendum est utique non crediderunt. Misericordia igitur et


quid veniat de misericordia ejus, quid de judicium in ipsis voluntatibus facta
judicio. Quod quserebat Israel, ait Apo- sunt. Augustin. de Praedestinat. Sanctor.

stolus, hoc non est consecutus, electio cap. 6.


XI.]
OK KKKK-WII.L.

blinded and yet the one, because they would, did believe ;
:

the others, because they would not, did not believe. Mercy,
therefore, and judgment were executed even upon the wills
themselves." Against the same opinions divers treatises were
published by Prosper also, who chargeth these men with
" 81
nourishing the poison" of the Pelagian pravity by their
" the
positions ; inasmuch as, first, beginning of salvation
" The
is
naughtily placed in man" by them: secondly,
willof man is impiously preferred before the will of God;
as if therefore one should be holpen because he did will,
and did not therefore will because he was holpen :"
thirdly,
" A man to begin his
originally evil is naughtily believed
receiving of good, not from the highest good, but from
himself:" fourthly, " It is thought that God may other-
wise be pleased than out of that which he himself hath
bestowed." But he maintaineth constantly, that both the
beginning and ending of a man^s conversion is wholly to
be ascribed unto grace; and that God effecteth this grace
" not
in us, by way of counsel and persuasion only,
but by an inward change and reformation of the mind ;

making up a new vessel of a broken one by a creating


virtue."

82
Non hoc consilio tantum hortatuque benigno
Suadens atque docens, quasi normam legis haberet
Gratia; sed mutans intus mentera, atque reforraans,
Vasque novum ex fracto fingens virtute creandi.

The writers of principal esteem on the other side were


83
Johannes Cassianus and Faustus Rhegiensis or Reiensis,
the former of which was encountered by Prosper in his
book Contra Collatorem, the latter by Fulgentius, Joh.
Maxentius, Caesarius, Johannes Antiochenus as also by ;

Gelasius and his Roman Synod of 70 Bishops the writings


of them both were rejected amongst the books apocryphal.

81
In istis Pelagianae pravitatis relliquiis male creditur ; si aliunde Deo placetur,
non mediocris virulentiae fibra nutritur, si nisi ex eo quod ipse donaverit. Prosper
principium salutis male in homine collo- in Epist. ad Augustin.
82
catur ; si divinae voluntati impie voluntas Id. de Ingratis, cap. 14.
83
humana praefertur, ut ideo quis adjuvetur Opuscula Cassiani, Presbyteri (ial-
quia voluit, non ideo quia adjuvatur velit ; liarum, apocrypha. Opuscula Fausti
si originaliter malus receptionem boni non Rhegiensis Galliarum apocrypha. Con-
a summo bono, sed a semetipso inchoate cil. Roman, i. sub Gelasio.
G G2
468 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [cifAl
1
.

And lastly, by the joint authority both of the


84
See of Rome
and of the French Bishops assembled in the second Council
of Orange, in the year of our Lord 529, sentence was
given against the Pelagians and semi-Pelagians in general,
that their opinions touching grace and free-will were not

agreeable to the Rule of the Catholic Faith ; and these


conclusions following, among sundry others, determined in

particular :

" 85 If
any doth say, that by man^s prayer the grace
of God may be
conferred, and that it is not grace itself
which maketh that God is prayed unto by us, he contra-
dicteth the Prophet Isaiah, or the Apostle saying the same

thing, / was found of them that sought me not, and have


been made manifest to them that asked not after me,
Isaiah LXV. 1, Rom. x. 20."
u 86 If
any man defend, that God doth expect our will
that we may be purged from sin, and doth not confess
will of ours to be
that this purged is wrought in us by
the infusion and operation of the Holy Ghost, he resisteth
the Holy Ghost, saying by Solomon, The will is pre-

pared by the Lord, (Prov. viii. 35, according to the Seventy,)


and the Apostle, preaching wholesomely, It is God which
worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure,
Philip, ii. 13."
" 87
If any man say that to us, without grace, believing,
84
[ Unde id nobis, secundum admoni- gratiam facere ut invocetur a nobis, con-
tionem auctoritatem sedis Apostolicae,
et tradicit Esaiae Prophetae, vcl Apostolo
justum ac rationabile visum est, ut pauca idem sum a non quae-
dicenti, Inventus

capitula ab Apostolica nobis sede trans- rentibus me, palam apparui iis qui me

missa, quae ab antiquis patribus de sanc- non interrogabant. Concil. Arausican. n.


tarum Scripturarum voluminibus in hac Can. in.
praecipue causa collecta sunt, ad docendos Si quis, ut a peccato purgemur, vo-
eos qui aliter quam oportet sentiunt, ab luntatem nostram Deum exspectare conten-
omnibus observanda proferre, et manibus dit, non autem, ut etiam purgari velimus,
nostris subscribere deberemus. Praefat. per sancti Spiritus inf'usionem et operatio-
Concil. Arausican. n. Quot Arausicani nem in nobis fieri confitetur, resistit ipsi
canones, tot sunt Catholicae ecclesiae sta- Spiritui sancto, per Salomonem dicenti,
bilitae sententise, a quibus absque prae- Praeparatur voluntas a Domino, et Apo-
varicationis piaculo baud liceat fideli stolo salubriter praedicanti, Deus est qui
recedere. Ban-on. Addit. ad Tom. vn. operatur in nobis et velle et perficere pro
ann. 529, in tomi x. appendice.*] bona voluntate. Ibid. Can. iv.
85 87
Si quis invocatione humana gratiam Si quis sine gratia Dei credentibus,
Dei dicit posse conferri, non autem ipsam volentibus, desiderantibus, conantibus,

* This note from the third edition


is inserted ED.
XI-
I
OF FREE-WILL. 469

willing, desiring, endeavouring, labouring, watching, studying,


asking, seeking, knocking, mercy is conferred by God ; and
doth not confess that it is wrought in us by the infusion
and inspiration of the Holy Ghost, that we may believe,
or do all these
will, things as we ought; and doth make
the help of grace to follow after man's either humility or
obedience, neither doth yield that it is the gift of grace
itself that we are obedient and humble; he resisteth the
Apostle, saying, What hast thou that thou hast not received ?
(l Cor. iv. 7,) and, By the grace of God I am that I am,
I Cor. xv. 10."
u 88
It is of God's gift, both when we do think
aright,
and when we hold our feet from falsehood and unrighteous-
ness. For as oft as we do good things, God worketh in
us and with us, that we
may work."
" 89 There are
many good things done in man which man
doeth not. But man doeth no good things which God doth
not make man to do."
" ^This also do we wholesomely profess and believe,
that in every good work we do not begin, and are holpen
afterwards by the mercy of God; but he first of all, no
good merits of ours going before, inspireth into us both
faith and the love of him, that we
may both faithfully seek
the sacrament of baptism, and after baptism, with his
help,
we may fulfil the things that are pleasing unto him."

Touching which last Canon we may note, first, for the


reading, that in the tomes of the Councils set out by Binius,
it is most For where the Council
notoriously corrupted.

laborantibus, vigilantibus, studentibus, agimus, Deus in nobis atque nobiscum,


petentibus, quaerentibus, pulsantibus no- |
ut operemur, operatur. Can. ix.
89
bis misericordiam dicit conferri divinitus; Multa in homine bona fiunt, quae non
non autem ut credamus, velimus, vel haec
j
f'acithomo. Nulla vero facit homo bona,
omnia sicut oportet agere valeamus, per quae non Deus praestet ut faciat homo,
infusionem et inspirationem sancti Spiri- Can. xx.
|

* Hoc etiam
tus in nobis fieri confitetur ; et aut humi- salubriter profitemur et
litati aut obedientiae humanae subjungit credimus, quod in omni opere bono non
gratiae adjutorium, nee ut obedientes et i
nos incipimus, et postea per Dei miseri-
humiles simus, ipsius gratiae donum esse cordiam adjuvamur; sed ipse nobis, nullis
consentit ; resistit Apostolo dicenti, Quid praecedentibus bonis mentis, et fidem et
habes quod non accepisti ? et, Gratia Dei amorem sui prius inspirat, ut et baptism i

sum id quod sum. Can. vi. sacramenta fideliter requiramus, et post


m Divini muneris, cum et recte
est baptismum cum ipsius adjutorio ea quae
cogitamus, pedes nostros a falsitate et
et sibi sunt placita implere possimus. Can.
injustitia tcnemus. Quoties enim bona ult.
ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

hath, Nullis prcecedentibus bonis meritis^ " No good merits


*
going before," there we read,
l
Multis prcecedentibus bonis
" merits going before." for
meritis, Many good Secondly,
the meaning, that " 92
the Fathers understand to be
grace
given according to merits, when any thing is done by our
own strength in respect whereof grace is given, although
it be no merit of condignity ;" as both Bellarmine himself
doth acknowledge in the explication of the determination
of the Palestine Synod against Pelagius, and in the case
of the semi-Pelagians, as it is delivered by Cassianus, is
most evident. For " 93 the grace of God," saith he, " doth
always so co-operate to the good part with our free-will,
and in all
things help, protect, and defend it, that some-
time it either requireth or expecteth from it some endeavours
of a good will, that it may not seem to confer its gifts

upon one that is altogether sleeping and given to sluggish


idleness, seeking occasions after a sort whereby, the dulness
of human slothfulness being shaken off, the largeness of its

bounty may not seem to be unreasonable, while it imparteth


the same under the colour of a kind of desire and labour:

yet so notwithstanding, that grace may always continue to


be gracious and free, while to such kind of small and little
endeavours with an inestimable largess it
giveth so great
glory of immortality, so great gifts of everlasting bliss."
" 94
Let human endeavour as much as it
frailty, therefore,
will, it cannot be equal to the retribution that is to

come; neither by the labours thereof doth it so diminish


God's grace, that it doth not always continue to be given
freely."

91 non irrationa-
Concil. Tom. ii. part. i. p. 639, edit. segnitiei torpore discusso,
Colon, aim. 1618. bilis munificentiae sua largitas videatur,
92
Gratiam secundum merita nostra dari dum earn sub colore cujusdam desiderii
intelligunt Patres, cum
aliquid fit propriis ac laboris impertit ; et nihilominus gratia
viribus, ratione cujus datur gratia, etiamsi Dei semper gratuita perse veret, dum ex-
non sit illud meritum de condigno. Bel- iguis quibusdam parvisque conatibus tan-
larm. de Grat. et Lib. Arbitr. lib. vi. cap. 5. tarn immortalitatis gloriam, tanta perennis
93
Ita semper gratia Dei nostro in bonam i

beatitudinis dona, inzestimabili tribuit

partem cooperatur arbitrio, atque in omni- largitate. Jo. Cassian. Collat. xiu. cap.
bus illud adjuvat, protegit ac defendit, ut ];>,.

nonnunquam etiam ab eo quosdam conatus j


M Quantumlibet ergo enisa fuerit hu-
bona? voluntatis vel exigat vel exspectet, mana fragilitas, futurae retributioni par
ne penitus dormienti aut inerti otio disso- essenon poterit ; nee ita laboribus suis
luto sua dona conferre videatur, occasiones divinam imminuit gratiam, ut non semper
quodammodo quaerens, quibus humana- gratuita perscveret. Ibid.
\l.\ OK

Where you may observe from what fountain the school-


men did derive their doctrine of works preparatory,
meriting
grace by way of congruity, though not of condignity. Tor
Cassianus, whom ll5

Prosper chargeth, notwithstanding all this


qualifying of the matter, to be a maintainer in very deed
of that damned point of Pelagianism, that " the
grace of
God was given according to our merits ;" Cassianus, I say,
was a man that bare great sway in our monasteries, where
1
his
writings were accounted as the monks general rules ;
and until the other day Faustus himself, who of all others
most cunningly opposed the doctrine of St Augustine touch-
ing grace and free-will, was accepted in the popish schools
for a Reverend Doctor and a Catholic Yea, the
Bishop.
works of Pelagius himself were had in such account, that
some of them (as his Epistle ad Demetriadem for example,
and Exposition upon St Paul's Epistles, which are
the

fraught with his heretical opinions,) have passed from hand


to hand as if
they had been written by St Jerome, and
alleged against us by some of our ad-
as such have been
versaries in this
very question of free-will. The less is it to
be wondered that three hundred years ago, in the midnight
of Popery, the profound Doctor Thomas Bradwardin, then
Chancellor of London, and afterwards Archbishop of Canter-
bury, should begin his disputations of the Cause of God
" %
against Pelagius with this lamentable complaint: Behold,
(I speak it with grief of heart touched inwardly), as in
old time against one prophet of God there were found eight
hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, unto whom an innu-
merable company of people did adhere, so at this day, in
this cause, how many, O
Lord, do now fight with Pelagius
for free-will against thy free grace, and against Paul, the
" 97 For the whole world
spiritual champion of grace?"
almost is
gone after Pelagius into error. Arise, therefore,
95
Prosper contra Collator, cap. 3 et 17, tiam tuam pugnant, et contra Paulum
tomo vn. Oper. Augustini. pugilem gratia? spiritualem ? Tho. Brad-
96
Ecce enim, (quod non nisi tactus do- wardin. Praefat. in lihros de Causa Dei
lore cordis intrinsecus
refero), sicut olim contra Pelag.
contra unicum Dei prophetam octingenti 07 Totus eten i m
pene mundus post Pe-
|

et quinquaginta prophets Baal et similes i


ag i um a biit in errorem. Exsurge igitur,
sunt reperti, quibus et innumerabilis po-
Domine, judica causam tuam ; et susti-
!

pulus adharebat ; ita et hodie in hac nentem te sustine, protege, robora, conso-
causa, quot, Domine, hodie cum Pelagio i are> Ibid,
pro libcro arbitrio contra gratuitam gra-
472 ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

O Lord, judge thine own and him that defendeth


cause;
thee, defend, protect, strengthen, and comfort." To whose
I also now leave these " 98 vain defenders," or,
judgment
as St Augustine rightly censureth them, " deceivers," and
" " " of free-will."
puffers-up," and presumptuous" extollers

OF MERITS.

IN the last place we are told, that the Fathers of the

unspotted Church of Rome did teach, that man " for his
meritorious works receiveth, through the assistance of God's

grace, the bliss of everlasting happiness." But our Chal-


lenger, I suppose, will hardly find one Father, either of
the spotted or unspotted Church of Rome, that ever spake
" That
so babishly herein as he maketh them all to do.
man, by the assistance of God's grace, may do meritorious
works," we have read in divers authors, and in divers
meanings. But after these works done, that a man should
" receive, through the assistance of God's grace, the bliss
of everlasting happiness," is such a piece of gibberish as I
do not remember that before now I have ever met withal,
even in Babel itself. For with them that understand what

they speak, assistance hath reference to the doing of the


work, not to the receiving of the reward; and simply to
say, that a man "
for his meritorious works" (taking merit
here as the Romanists in this question would have it taken)
" receiveth,
through God's grace, the bliss of everlasting
happiness," is to speak flat contrarieties, and to conjoin
those things that cannot possibly be coupled together. For
that conclusion of Bernard is most certain, " 'There is no

place for grace to enter, where merit hath taken possession,"


because it is
grounded upon the Apostle's determination,

98
Liberi arbitrii defensores, imo de- fensores, sed inflatores et praecipitatores
ceptores quia inflatores, et inflatores quia liberi arbitrii. Id. de Grat. et Lib. Arbitr.

prsesumptores. Augustin. Epist. cv. ad cap. 14.


Sixtum. Vani, non defensores, sed infla-
1
Non est in quo gratia intret ubi jam
tores liberi arbitrii. Id. in opere postremo meritum occupavit. Bernard, in Cantic.
r ontra Julian. Pelagian, lib. ii. Non de- 8er. LXVJI.
Xll. OK MERITS. 473

Rom. xi. 6,
If it be of grace, it is no more of works, or
else were grace no more grace.
Neither do we therefore take away the reward, because
we deny the merit, of good works. We know that in the
keeping of God's commandments there is great reward,
Psalm xix. 11, and that unto him who soweth righteous-
ness there shall be a sure reward, Prov. xi. 18. But the
question is, whence he that soweth in this manner must
expect to reap so great and so sure a harvest whether :

from God's justice, which he must do if he stand, as the


Jesuits would have him do, upon merit; or from his mercy,
as a recompence
freely bestowed out of God's gracious
bounty, and not in justice due for the worth of the work
performed. Which question, we think, the Prophet Hosea
hath sufficiently resolved, when he biddeth us sow to our-
selves in righteousness, and reap in MERCY, Hosea x. 12.

[*yea, and God himself in the very publication of the


Decalogue, where he promiseth to shew MERCY unto thou-
sands of them that love him and keep his commandments.']
Neither do we hereby any whit detract from the truth of
that axiom, that God will give every man according to his
works; for still
question the remaineth the very same,
whether God may
not judge a man according to his works,
when he sitteth upon the throne of grace, as well as when
he sitteth upon the throne of ? And we think here,
justice
that the Prophet David hath fully cleared the case in that
one sentence, Psalm Lxii. 12, With thee, O Lord, is MERCY;
for thou rewardest every one according to his work.
Originally, therefore, and in itself, we hold that this
reward proceedeth merely from God's free bounty and mercy;
but accidentally, in regard that God hath tied himself by
his word and promise to confer such a reward, we grant
that it now proveth in a sort to be an act of justice; even
as in forgiving of our sins, which in itself all men know
to be an act of
mercy, he is said to be faithful and just,
(l John i. 9) ; namely, in regard of the faithful performance
of his promise. For a promise, we see, amongst honest men
is counted a due debt ; but the
thing promised being free,

*
The .sentence between brackets is omitted in the fourth edition. It is here printed
from the third ED.
ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

and on our part altogether undeserved, if the promiser did


not perform, and proved not to be so good as his word,
he could not properly be said to do me wrong, but rather
to wrong himself
by impairing his own credit. And there-
" 2 that God is not
fore Aquinas himself confesseth, hereby
simply made a debtor to us, but to himself, inasmuch as
it is
requisite that his own ordinance should be fulfilled."
Thus was Moses careful to put the children of Israel in
mind touching the land of Canaan, which was a type of
our habitation in heaven, that it was a land of
eternal

promise, and not of merit, which God did give them to


possess, not for their righteousness, or for their upright
heart, but that he might perform the word which he sware
unto their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Deut. ix. 5.
Whereupon the Levites say, in their prayer unto God,
Nehem. ix. 8, Thou madest a covenant with Abraham, to
give unto his seed the land of the Canaanites, and hast
performed thy word, because thou art JUST. Now, because
the Lord had made a like promise of the crown of life to
them that love him, (James i. 12,) therefore St Paul doth
not stick in like manner to attribute this also to God's

justice Henceforth, saith he, 2 Tim. iv. 8, is laid up for me


:

the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous


Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only,
but unto all them also that love his appearing. Upon
which place Bernard, in his book of Grace and Free-will,
saith most sweetly " 3 That therefore which Paul
:
expecteth
is a crown of righteousness, but of God's righteousness,
not his own. For it is just that he should give what he
oweth, and he oweth what he hath promised; and this is
the righteousness of God, of which the Apostle presumeth,
the promise of God/'
But this will not content our Jesuits, unless we yield
" 4
unto them, that we do as properly and truly merit

quod Deus autem quod


2
Non sequitur, efficiatur pollicitus est; et haec est jus-

simpliciter debitor nobis, sed sibi ipsi;


titiaDei, de qua praesumit Apostolus,
in quantum debitum est ut sua ordinatio promissio Dei. Bernard, lib. de Gratia
impleatur. Thorn, i. 11. Quaest. cxiv. et Libero Arbitrio.
4
Art. 1, Ad. 3. Nos tarn proprie ac vere cum gratia
3
Est ergo quam Paulus exspectat corona Dei bene agentes praemia mereri, quam
justitiae, sed justitiae Dei, non suae. Jus- sine ilia male agentes supplicia meremur.
;tum quippeest ut reddatquod debet ; debet Jo. Maldonat. in Ezech. xviii. 20.
XII.]
OK MERITS.

rewards when with the grace of God we do well, us wi-


de merit punishments when without grace we do evil ;" so
" Hhat
say, unless we maintain,
saith Maldonat: that is to
the good works of just persons do merit eternal life con-

dignly, not only by reason of God's covenant and acceptation,


but also by reason of the work itself; so that in a good
work proceeding from grace there may be a certain pro-
portion and equality unto the reward of eternal life ;" so
saith Cardinal Bellarmine. For the further opening whereof,
Vasquez taketh upon him to prove in order these three
distinct propositions: Jirst, " That the good works of just

persons are of themselves, without any covenant and accepta-


tion, worthy of the reward of eternal life, and have an equal
value of condignity to the obtaining of eternal glory :" se-
" 7 That no accession of
condly, dignity doth come to the
works of the just by the merits or person of Christ, which
the same should not have otherwise, if they had been done

by the same grace, bestowed liberally by God alone without


Christ:" thirdly, " 8 That God's promise is annexed indeed
to the works of just men, yet it belongeth no way to the
reason of the merit; but cometh rather to the works, which
are already not worthy only, but also meritorious." Unto
5
Opera bona justorum meritoria esse condigno ratione operis, etiamsi nulla ex-
vitae aeternse ex condigno, non solum ra- staret divina conventio. Ita Cajetan. in
tione pacti et acceptations, sed etiam Thorn, part. i. u. Qua-st. cxiv. Art. 1,
ratione operis; ita ut in opere bono ex et Dominic, a Soto de Nat. et Grat.

gratia procedente sit qua-darn proportio cap. 7.


ad praemium 6
et aequalitas vitas aeternae. Opera bona justonim ex seipsis,
Bellarm. de Justif. lib. v. cap. 17- Non absque ullo pacto et acceptatione, digna
quod sine pacto et acceptatione non habeat esse remuneratione vitac aeternae ; et aequa-

opus bonum proportionem ad vitam aeter- lem valorem condignitatis habere ad con-
nam ex operis dignitate. Ibid. Detra- sequendam ae tern am gloriam. Gabr. Vas-
hitur de gloria Christi, si merita nostra quez. Commentar. in Imam 2dae, Quaest.
sint ita imperfecta, ut non sint meritoria cxiv. Disput. ccxiv. cap. 5, init.
ex condigno, nisi ratione acceptationis 7
Operibus justorum nullum digni-
Dei. In ipso cap. ibid. fine. Satis est tatis accrementum provenire ex mentis

proportionalis aequalitas. Ibid. cap. 18. aut persona Christi, quod alias eadem
Modus futuri judicii erit secundum justi- non haberent, si fierent ex eadem gratia
tiam commutativam ; quoniam Deus non a solo Deo liberaliter sine Christo collata.
solum constituet proportionalem a-quali- Ibid. init. cap. 7-
tatem inter merita et praemia, sed etiam 8
Operibus justorum accessisse quidem
absolutam aequalitatem inter opera et mer- divinam promissionem ; earn tamen nullo
cedes. Ibid. cap. 14. Ubi opus est per modo pertinere ad rationem meriti ; sed
se aequale mercedi. Ibid. lib. i.
cap. 21. potius advenire operibus, non tantum jam
Vere par mercedi. Ibid. lib. v. cap. 17. dignis sed etiam jam ineritoriis. Ibid.
Non dcsunt qui consent cssc meritoria ex init. cap. J!.
4*76 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

all which he addeth afterwards this corollary " 9


Seeing :

the works of a just man do condignly merit eternal life, as


an equal recompence and reward, there is no need that any
other condign merit, such as is the merit of Christ, should
come between, that eternal life
might be rendered unto
them. Yea, of every just man hath somewhat
the merit

peculiar in respect of the just man himself, which the merit


of Christ hath not; namely, to make the man himself just
and worthy of eternal life, that he
worthily obtain the may
same. But the merit of
Christ, although it be most wor-
thy to obtain glory of God for us, yet it hath not this

efficacy
and virtue, to make us formally just and worthy
of eternal life; but men by virtue derived from him attain
this effect in themselves. And so we never request of God
by the merits of Christ, that the reward of eternal life may
be given to our worthy and meritorious works ; but that
by Christ grace may be given unto us, whereby we may be
enabled worthily to merit this reward." In a " 10 Our
word,
" have this force in us, that they make us
merits," saith he,
formally worthy of eternal life : the merits of Christ do not
make us worthy formally, but Christ is worthy, in regard
of them, to impetrate unto us whatsoever he requesteth for
us."
Thus doth Vasquez the Jesuit discover unto us to the
full the mystery of this iniquity; with whom, for the better
information of the English reader, we join our Rhemists,
who deliver this as their Catholic doctrine: " n That all

good works done by God's grace after the first justification

9
Cum opera justi condigne mereantur sequuntur effectum homines in seipsis.
vitam aeternam tanquam aequalem merce- Et ita nunquam petimus a Deo per merita
dem et praemium, non opus est inter- Christi, ut nostris dignis operibus et me-
ventu alterius merit! condigni, quale est ritoriis reddatur merces aeternaa vitae ; sed
meritum Christi, ut eis reddatur vita aeter- ut per Christum detur nobis gratia, qua
na : quinimo aliquid habet peculiare me- possimus digne hanc mercedem prome-
ritum cujuscunque justi respectu ipsius reri. Id. ibid. Disput. ccxxn. cap. 3,
hominis justi, quod non habet meritum num. 30, 31.
10
Christi ; nempe reddere ipsum hominem Merita nostra in nobis hanc vim ha-
justum et dignum aeterna vita, ut earn bent, ut reddant nos formaliter dignos

digne consequatur meritum autem Christi


: vita aeterna : merita autem Christi non
licetdignissimum sit, quod obtineat a Deo reddunt nos dignos formaliter, sed Chris-
gloriam pro nobis ; tamen non habet hanc tus dignus est, qui propter ilia nobis im-
efficaciam et virtutem, ut reddat nos for- petret quicquid ipse pro nobis petierit.
maliter justos et dignos aeterna vita ; sed '

Ibid. num. 32.


n Rhem. Annotat. Tim.
per virtutem ab ipso derivatam hunc con- j
in 2 iv. 8.
XII.]
or MKKITS.

be truly and properly meritorious, and fully worthy of ever-


lasting life ; and that thereupon heaven is the due and just
stipend, crown, or recompence, which God by his justice
oweth to the persons so working by his grace. For he
rendereth or repay eth heaven ," say they, " as a just judge,
and not only as a merciful giver; and the crown which he
payeth not only of mercy, or favour, or grace, but also
is

of justice." And again, " 12 that man's works done by


Christ's do condignly or worthily deserve eternal
grace
;" so as " 13
works can be none other but the value,
joy
desert, price, worth, and merit of the same." Whereupon.

u that the " word


they put us in mind reward, which in
our English tongue may signify a voluntary or bountiful
gift, doth not here so well express the nature of the Latin
word Amerces, or the Greek yuwfloe; which are rather the
very stipend that theor journeyman cove-
hired workman
nanteth to have of him whose work he doth, and is a thing
equally and justly answering to the time and weight of his
travels and works, rather than a free gift."
This is that doctrine of merits, which from our very
hearts we detest and abhor, as utterly repugnant to the
truth of God and the common sense of all true-hearted
Christians. The lesson which our Saviour taught his dis-
ciples is far different from this, Luke xvii. 10, When ye
have done all those things which are commanded you, say,
We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which
was our duty to do. And " 16 if he be unprofitable," saith
St Jerome, " who hath done all, what is to be said of him
who could not fulfil them?" So likewise the Romans them-
selves might remember that they were taught by St Paul
at the beginning, that there is no proportion of condignity
to be found betwixt not the actions only, but the passions

also, of the saints, and the reward that is reserved for us in


the world to come For I reckon that the sufferings of
:

this present time are not worthy to be compared with the

glory which shall be revealed in us, saith he, Rom. viii. 18,

12
lidem in Luc. xx. 35. gratiam, et non secundum debitum. Bel-
18 larmin. de Justific. lib. i. cap. 21.
lid. in 1 Cor. iii. 8.
14 16
Ibid. Si inutilis est, qui fecit omnia ; quid
15
Mercedem quandam esse dicimus, de illo dicendum qui explere non
est,

qua magis debetur ex gratia, quam ex potuit ? Hieronym. ad Ctesiphont. contra


justitia ; sive quae imputetur secundum Pelag.
478 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP

and Bernard " lr


thereupon: Concerning the life eternal,
we know sufferings of this time are not worthy
that the
to be compared with the future glory ; no, not if one man
did sustain them all. For the merits of men are not such
that for them eternal life should be due of right, or God
should do any injury if he did not give it. For to let
pass that all merits are God's gifts, and in that respect a
man is for them made a debtor to God more than God to
man what are all merits in comparison of so great a glory ?"
;

And St Ambrose long before him: " 18 A11 those things


which we suffer are too little an<} unworthy, for the pains
whereof there should be rendered unto us so great a reward
of good things to come, as shall be revealed in us when,
being reformed according to the image of God, we shall

merit," or obtain,
" to see his
glory face to face."
Where for the better understanding of the meaning of
point, we may further observe,
Fathers in this
the that
merits in their writings do ordinarily signify nothing but
19
works, as in the alleged place of Bernard; and to merit,

simply to procure or to attain, without any relation at all


to the dignity either of the person or the work as both in :

the last words of Ambrose is plainly to be seen; and in


that passage of Bernard concerning children promoted to the
" 20 more
prelacy, that they were glad they had escaped the
rod than that they had merited,"" that " the
is, obtained,

17De aeterna vita scimus, quia non 19


Verum quidem est, neque id me
sunt condignae passiones hujus temporis fugit, usurpari nonnunquam nomen me-
ad futuram gloriam ; nee, si unus omnes riti, ubi nulla est ratio meriti, neque ex
sustineat. Neque enim talia sunt homi- congruo, neque de condigno. Andr.
num merita, ut propter ea vita aetema de- Vega Defens. Concil. Tridentin. de Jus-
beretur ex jure; aut Deus injuriam ali- tificat. lib. viii. cap. 8. Si aliquis voca-

quam faceret, nisi earn donaret. Nam, bulo promerendi usus est; aliter non in-
ut taceam quod merita omnia dona Dei tellexit, quam consecutionem de facto.

sunt, et ita homo magis propter ipsa Deo Stapleton. Promptuar. Catholic. Fer. v.
debitor est, quam Deus homini; quid post Dominic. Passion. Vocabulum me-
sunt merita omnia ad tantam gloriam ? rendi apud veteres ecclesiasticos scriptores
Bernard. Serm. i. in Annunciat. B. Ma- fere idem quod consequi, seu ap-
valet

riae. tum idoneumque fieri ad consequendum.

18
Omnia quae patimur minora sunt et Georg. Cassand. Schol. in Hymnos Ec-
tanta re- clesiastic, p. 179. Oper. Vide Cochlaeum
indigna, quorum pro laboribus
in Discuss. Confess, et Apolog. Artie.
pendatur futurorum merces bonorum, quag
revelabitur innobis, cum ad Dei imaginem XX.
80 Laetiores interim
reformati gloriam ejus facie ad faciem quod virgas evase-
aspicere meruerimus. Ambros. Epist. rint, quam quod meruerint principatum.
XXII. Bernard. Epist. XLII.
XII.] OF MERITS. 1-79

preferment." And therefore, as Tacitus writes of Agricohi,


that -'by his " virtues he merited," that is to say, incurred.
" the
anger of Caius Caesar;" so St Augustine saith, that
he and his fellows for their good doings, at the hands of the
" 2a
Donatists, instead of thanks, merited," that is, incurred,
" the flames of hatred." On the other
side, the same Father
affirmeth that St Paul " ^for his persecutions and blasphe-
mies that the " to be named a
merited," is, found grace,
vessel of election"; having reference to that in 1 Tim. i. 13,
Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and inju-
rious ; but I obtained mercy; where, instead- of rjXerjOrjv,
which the vulgar Latin translateth misericordiam consecutus
sum,
24
St Cyprian readeth misericordiam merui, " I merited
mercy." Whereunto we may add that saying which is
found also the works of St " that ^no
among Augustine,
sinner should despair of himself, seeing Paul hath merited
pardon;" and that of Gregory, " ^Paul, when he went
about to extinguish the name of our Redeemer upon earth,
merited to hear his words from heaven;" as also that other
strain of his concerning the sin of Adam, which is
sung
in the Church of Rome at the blessing of the :
" 27 O
taper
sin that merited," that is, found the favour, " to
happy
have such and so great a Redeemer." Howsoever, therefore,
the ancient doctors may seem unto those that are not well

acquainted with their language to speak of merits as the


Romanists do, yet have they nothing common with them
but the bare word ; in the thing itself they differ as much
from them every way as our Church doth.
" *! can be saith " that
hardly persuaded," Origen,
26
21
lis virtutibus iram Caii Caesaris me- Quid quod Paulus, cum Kedempto-
ritus. Tacit, in Vit. Jul. Agricolae. ris nomen in terra conaretur extinguere,
22
Pro actione gratiarum flammas me- ejus verba de coelo meruit audire ? Greg.
ruinius odiorum. Augustin. contra liter. Moral, in Job. lib. ix. cap. xvii.
Petilian. lib. iii. cap. 6.
27 O felix culpa, quae talem ac tantuni
23 meruit habere Redemptorem Vide Jo-
Pro persecutionibus et
blasphemiis !

vas electionis meruit nominari. Id. de dec. Clicthovei, lib. de duab. Propositi-
Prsedestinat. et Gratia. onib. Cerei Paschalis.
28
24
Cyprian. Epist. Lxxiii.sect.il. Au-
Vix mihi suadeo quod possit ullum
gustin. de Baptism, contra Donatist. lib. opus esse, quod ex debito remunerationem
iv. cap. 5. Dei deposcat; cum etiam hoc ipsum,
25
Ut omnis peccator propterea de se quod agere aliquid possumus vel cogitare
non desperet, quia Paulus meruit indul- vel proloqui, ipsius dono et largitione

gentiam. Augustin. Serm. XLIX. de faciamus. Origen. lib. iv. in Epist. ad


Tempore. Rom. cap. iv.
480 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP,

there can work which may require the reward of


be any
God by way of debt, seeing this very thing itself, that we
can do or think or speak anything, we do it by his gift
and largess." [*So betwixt the punishments for evil, and
the rewards for good, doings Didymus maketh this dif-
29
ference: that of the one man himself is the cause; the
other " man begetteth not, but God graciously bestoweth" :

according to that fore-cited place of the Apostle, Rom.


" 30 " there is
viii.
18.] Wages indeed," saith St Hilary,
none of gift, because it is due by work; but God hath given
the same free to all men by the justification of faith."
" 31 Whence should I have so
great merit, seeing mercy
" 32 Which
is
my crown?" saith St Ambrose. And again,
of us can subsist without the mercy of God ? What can we
do worthy of the heavenly rewards ? Which of us doth
so rise up in this body, that he doth elevate his mind in
such sort as he may continually adhere unto Christ? By
what merit of man is it
granted that this corruptible flesh
should put on incorruption, and this mortal should put on
immortality? By what labours, or by what enduring of
injuries, can we abate our sins ? The sufferings of this
time are unworthy for the glory that is to come. Therefore
the form of heavenly decrees doth proceed with men, not

according to our merits, but according to God's mercy."


St Basil, expounding those words of the Psalmist, Behold,
the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them

39
TOVTO Xeyet, OTI iraTtj/o e<rrai iroX- seratione subsistere ? Quid possumus
Xuii/ yevvrjfJLdTtav KCCKOJJ/, arrios yevojuevos dignum praemiis facere coelestibus ? Quis
6e a'juoi/3as Tas 0eias OVK nostrum ita assurgit in hoc corpore, ut
evva, a'XXd 0eos ^api^eTai' ov animum suum elevet, quo jugiter adhae-
yap dia TCI iradij/maTa rov vvv Kaipov reat Christo? Quo tandem hominum
TT/OOS TT]I> fieXXovarav doav airo/caXu</>0?;- merito defertur, ut haec corruptibilis caro
vai els i}/K<z. Didym. in Job. xv. 35, in induat incorruptionem, et mortale hoc in-
Catena MS. D. Augustini Lindselli. duat immortalitatem ? Quibus laboribus,
30 Merces quidem ex dono nulla est, quibus injuriis, possumus nostra levare
quia debetur ex opere; sed gratuitam peccata? Indignae sunt passiones hujus
Deus omnibus ex fidei justificatione do- temporis ad superventuram gloriam Non .

na vit. Hilar. in Matth. Can. xx. ergo secundum merita nostra, sed secun-
31
Unde mihi tantum meriti, cui indul- dum misericordiam Dei, coelestium decre-
gentia pro corona est ? Ambros. in Ex- torum in homines forma procedit. Id.
hortat. ad Virgines. in Psalm, cxviii. Octonar. xx. Vide
32
Quis nostrum sine divina potest mi- eund. de Bono Mortis, cap. 11.

From the third edition .


wanting in the fourth ED.
\II.~I
OF MERITS.

that hope in his mercy. Psalm


k -
xxxiii. 18, saith, that IK-

doth hope in his mercy, ^who, not trusting in his own good
deeds, nor looking to be justified by works, hath the hope
11
of his salvation only in the mercies of God. And in his
explication of those other words, Psalm cxvi. 7> Return
unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bounti-
"
fully with thee : ^Everlasting rest," saith he, "is laid
up for them that strive lawfully in this life ; not to be ren-
dered according to the debt of works, but exhibited by
the grace of the bountiful God to them that trust in him."
" ^If we consider our own
merits, we must despair," saith
St Jerome: and, " S6 When the day of judgment or death
shall come, all hands will fail because no work shall be ;

found worthy of the justice of God." Macarius the Egyp-


tian Eremite in his 15th Homily writeth thus: "
37
Touching
the gift which Christians shall inherit, this a man may

rightly say, that if any one, from the time wherein Adam
was created unto the very end of the world, did fight against
Satan and undergo afflictions, he should do no great matter
in respect of the glory that he shall inherit; for he shall

reign together with Christ world without end/' His 37th


is in the Paris edition of the works of M Marcus
Homily
the Eremite, set out as the proem of his book of Paradise
and the Spiritual Law. There Macarius exhorteth us, that
" 39
believing in Almighty God, we should with a simple
heart and void of scrupulosity come unto him who bestoweth

13
'O /LIT;
ireiroiSoJ? e-Tri TOIS CCLVTOV dv- II/OOS TO SofJLCt OUV O fJLG\\OV<Tl K\fJ-

opayaQr\p.a<ri, yurjoe TrpocrooKwv e epytav TOVTO O.V TtS O/00OJS ITTOI, Et


eVaer-ros, d<f>' ov tK-riaQi] b 'ASdfJi ecus T/S
T//S 0-tt)TTJ/Ol'aS Girl TOWS olKTlp/J.OV': TOV <rui/Te\ias TOV KOOfiov, eiroXc/Jiei irpo<;
Qeov. Basil, in Psalm xxxii. TOV Sarai/av, *cai uire'/Lietj/e ras 0\i\//t5,
34 aitovia ovdev fieya eiroiei
HpoKeirai "/dp dvairavcrii TT/OOS TtjV oofcav i/w
Toll vop.iu.wi TOV fVTavQa 5ia6Xj'o-a<Tt [ie\\ei K\rjpovop.elv. o-u/u/Uao-iXeucrei yap
ov KCCT' o06i\;/ua Ttav epycav diro- eisToi/s a-7re/oa//TOU9 aitui/as /uera Xpto-roi/.
ftiov,

oeoofievr}, d\\d Kara \dpiv TOV peya- Macar. Homil. xv.


38 Marc. Eremit. edit. Paris, ann. 1563.
XoSwpov 0eou Tols eis avTov iiXiriKoai

irape^ofjievi]. Id. in Psal. cxiv. et apud Nam Procemium illud


in Micropresbitico
Anton. Meliss. part. n. Serm. xcin. non habetur; quippe quod Macarii con-
35
Si nostra consideremus merita, de- stet esse, non March
lib. xvii. in 39 Toi iravToovvdfJita Qea>
sperandum est. Hieronym.
Esai. cap. Lxiv. Kal dirfptepyw Kapoia
36
Cum dies judicii vel dormitionis ad- Ut Old 7Tt(rT6'J)V T1\V fJ.fTOVff'taV TOV
venerit,omnes manus dissolventur, &c. n/oi^o/ut'i/w, Kai ov old irdpct-
quia nullum opus dignum Dei justitia Ka<rp.ov iritrrftai cpywv. Macar. HomiL
reperietur. Id. lib. vi. in Esai. cap. xiii. XXXVII.
II II
482 ANSWER TO A JESUIT S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

the communion of the Spirit according to faith, and not


according to the proportion of the works of faith.'' Where 1

Johannes Picus, the Popish interpreter of Marcus, giveth


us warning in his margin, that " this clause is to be under-
stood of a lively faith;" but concealeth his own faithlessness
in corrupting of the text, by turning " the works of faith"
into " the works of nature ;" for ov Sid TrapeiKacrnov Trio-Tews

epywv is
by his Latin translation, which is to be seen in
40
Bibliotheca Patrum, as much to say as, Non ex propor-
tions operum naturce.
There is a treatise extant of the said Marcus, ire
pi
TW>V
"
oio/uLevcov ef epycov &iKaiov(T0ai, touching those who think
to be justified by their works;" where he maketh two sorts
41 " miss both of them the
of men, that kingdom" of heaven :

" such as do not


the one, keep the commandments, and
that believe the " such as
yet imagine they aright;" other,
keeping the commandments, do expect the kingdom as a
wages due unto them." For " 42 the Lord," saithhe, " willing
to shew that all the commandments are of duty to be per-
formed, and that the adoption of children is freely given
to men by his blood, saith, When you have done all things
that are commanded you, then say, We are unprofitable
servants, and we have done that which was our duty to
do. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is not the hire of
works, but the grace of the Lord prepared for his faithful
servants." This sentence is repeated in the very selfsame
43
words by Hesychius in his book of Sentences written to
Thelasius. The like sayings also hath St Chrysostom :

cc 44
No man sheweth such a conversation of life,that he

40
Bibliothec. Patr. Tom. iv. p. 935.
B. edit. Colon, et in ipsa Graeco-Latina
editione quae nuperrime prodiit Parisiis, KO.L o a>(pei\o/j.ev Troirftr

ann. 1624, Tom. i. p. 874. did TOUTO OVK ea-rt /jncrdo-s epywv 17 fiaariXeia
41
Ttl/CS /U.JJ
7TOIOVVT6S TCCS eVToXctS TWV ovpaviav, dXXd X"/ iS dea-TTOTOV TTKT-

imcrreveiv 6p6a)<s vo/uLi^ova-i' TII/CS Be TTOL- TOIS dovXot-s rJTOifiacrjuej/?}.


Id. ibid. cap. 2.
43 Presb. in
ouvrei, o5s fJLLcrQov ofpeiXo/LLevov, Ttjv /8a<ri- Hesyc. 'AvTippirrtKoi<i >
\eiav eKdeyfovrai' dfj-ffroTepoi oe T?J<S ftaan- Centur. i. sect. 79.
Marc. Eremit. de 44 Ou^ets ToiavTtfv eTrideiKuwrai TroXt-
Xeicts dTrefffpdXrjffav.
his qui putant ex operibus justificari, cap. Teiav ox(TT6 /SairiXetas d^iwQfjvat, dXXa
17, et ex eo Anastasius Sinaita, vel Nicae- TT}S avTov ow/oeas ecrTt TO ira.v oia TOUTO
nus, Quaest. i. p. 16, edit. Ingolstad. (firja-LV,
"OTay Trdvra Troir\ar\Te, XeyeTC
42
'O Ku/oios ircia-av ewToX^v 6<pei\o- OTL d\peioi SovXoi earfjiev' a ydp w(j>eiXo-

p.evt)V ^el^ai 6e\wv, TJJI/ e vioQeaiav idiot fjiev Troiijarai, TreTronj/ca/uej/. Chrysost. in
Epist. ad Coloss. Homil.
u.
XII.] 01 .MKU1TS.

may be
worthy of the kingdom; but this is whollv of the
L;ift of (rod. Therefore he saith, When ye. /tare do/ir a//,
.SY///,
We are unprofitable servant* ; for what we ought to
we have done." "
do, "Although we did die a thousand
deaths, although we did perform all virtuous actions, vet
should we come short by far of rendering anything worthy
1
of those honours which are conferred upon us by God.'
"
"'Although we should do innumerable good deeds, it is
of God's pity and benignity that we are heard ; although
we should come unto the very top of virtue, it is of mercy
that we are saved." 17 "
For, although we did innumerable"
works of mercy, yet would it be of " the benignity of grace,
that for such small and mean matters should be given so

great a heaven and a kingdom, and such an honour ;"


*K
whereunto nothing we do can have equal correspondence.
" 49 Let the merit of men be
excellent; let him observe the
rights of nature, let him be obedient to the commandments
of the laws, let him
keep justice, exercise
fulfil his faith,
virtues, condemn
vice, repel sins, shew himself an example
for others to imitate if he have
performed anything, it is
:

little whatsoever he hath done is small


; for all merit is ;

short. Number God's benefits if thou canst, and then con-


sider what thou dost merit. Weigh thine own deeds with
the heavenly benefits, ponder thine own acts with the divine

gifts, and thou wilt not judge thyself worthy of that which
thou art, if thou understandest what thou dost merit."
Whereunto we may add the exhortation made by St Antony
4S 8 T
Kav yap fiv/HOKlV etiroSai/oo/tiei/, KUU Hs ouoev <iv yevoiro larov. Id. in

irdtrav dpeTr\v eirioei^w/xeOa, ouoe TJJV Psalm, v.


49 hominum meri-
diav TO TroXXocrTOv diroceoaiKafJLev Ttav Sit licet excellens
natura? jura conservans,
virrjpyfjievtav irapd TOV Qeov
ei9 tum, sit sit legum
rj/uas

Tifiiav. Id. de Compunction e, ad Ste- jussis obtemperans ; impleat fidem, jus-


lechium. Tom. vi. edit. Savil. p. 157. titiam teneat, virtutes exerceat, damnet
KoV yap fj.vpia peccata repellat, semet exemplum
**'
KaTOpQtoa-oafiev, dtro vitia,

aKovofjieQa xai (piXavQptaTrias. \


imitantibus praebeat ; si quid gcsserit,
KUV -n-pos auTTji/ dvcKQwfiev T?;9 dpeTT)? ]
parum est ; quicquid fecerit, minus .

TI]V Kopvfyrjv, dTro e/Vt'ous erw^ofieQa. Id.


j
omne enim meritum breve est. Numera
in Psalm iv. ibidemque ex eo Nicetas j
beneficia si potes, et tune considera quid
Serronius. mereris. Cum beneficiis coclestibi-.s tua
'
Ki/ ydp fjLvpia tam TreTToiTj/cdres, i
faeta perpende ;
cum divinis muncribus
XapiTo's ftrTiv j (pL\oTifj.ia, TO ditTt /ui- I actus proprios meditare; nee dignum te
Kpwv ovTta /cat euToXwi/ ovpavov TO<TOVTOV \
judicabis eo quod fueris, si intelligas
KUI fi(t(Ti.\eiai> aril TifXuca^nftf niiTntv l

quid mereris. Serm. de primo homine


c.oQiivai Tt/Ltiji/. Id. in IMatth. Hoinil.
'

prsclato omni creaturas, Tom. i.


Oper.
i xxix. edit, (ira^r. vel i.xxx. Latin. ('hry^ost.
H H2
484 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [CHA?.

to his monks The life of man is most short


in " 50
Egypt:
being measured with the world to come so that all our ;

time is even nothing in comparison of everlasting life. And


every thing in this world is sold for that which it is worth,

and one giveth equal in exchange of equal but the promise ;

of everlasting bought for a very little matter. Where-


life is

fore, sons, my
let us not wax weary, nor think that we stay

long or perform some great thing; for the sufferings of this


present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us. Neither when we look upon
the world, let us think that we have forsaken any great
matters. For all this earth is but a very little thing in
comparison of Therefore, although we
the whole heaven.
had been lords of the whole earth and did forsake the
whole earth, that would be nothing worthy to be compared
with the kingdom of heaven. For as if one would neglect
one piece of brass, that he might gain a hundred pieces of
gold so he who is lord of the whole earth and forsaketh it,
;

should but forego a little and receive a hundred-fold."


Such another exhortation doth St Augustine also make
unto his hearers: " 51 When thou dost saith he, consider,"
B
"OXcos 6 TWV dvQpunrwv /3ios /3/oa- omnia tibi erunt vilia quae pateris, nee

e<TTl, fJLCTpOU/J.evO'S TOl/S digna aestimabis pro quibus illud accipias.


aitui/cts* a>'<rre Kal irdvTa TOV Miraberis tantum dari pro tanto labore.
"Xpovov i}/j.iav fjirjoev eli/ai TT/OOS Tr\v a'uavtov Nam utique, fratres, pro aeterna requie
Kal irdv fiev Trpay/zcc kv TW K6<r/j.ca
a>r)v. labor aeternus subeundus erat. ^Eternam
TOV diov 7rnrpd<TKeTaL, Kal loov i<ru> TIS felicitatem accepturus, asternas passiones
di/Ti/caTaXXa<r>ret. rj Se eirayyeXia TT;S sustinere deberes. Sed si aeternum susti-
aitaviov 0)77? 6\iyov TII/OS ayopa'eT<u, neres laborem, quando venires ad aeternam
&C. wore, Te/cva, /xjj e/c/ca/itojitei/, /j.r)oe
felicitatem ? Ita fit, ut necessario tem-
vo fti^ca /J.GV fcpovi'^eiv, 1; fieya TL Troieiv. poralis sit tribulatio tua, qua finita venias
ov yap d'ia Ta iraQi'i/uaTa TOV vvv Kaipov ad felicitatem infinitam. Sed plane, fra-
Tr/aos Ti}v /j.e\\ov<rav dTroKa.\v(f)Qjjvai. els tres, posset esse longa tribulatio pro aeterna
tj/xas 6av. fitj^e eis TOV KocrfMOV (3\eTrov- felicitate : verbi gratia, ut quoniam feli-
Tes vo/ml'^wfjLev jueyctXois Tiaiv aTroTeTa- citas nostra finem non habebit; miseria
X^ai. Kal ydp Kai avTt] Trd<ra >/ yij ftpa- nostra, et labor noster, et tribulationes
XWTCtTr) 7T/OOS 0\OV TOV OVpdVOV t-(TTlV' fl nostrae diuturnae essent. Nam etsi mille
TOLVVV Kal Tra'o-jjs T^S y^s /cu/cuot eTvyya- annorum essent ; appende mille annos
yo/Mef, Kal direTaffuo^jicQa Trj yfj Trdari) contra aeternitatem. Quid appendis cum
ovSev diov T)j/ TTaXiv 'wpo's TTJJ/ (3a<ri\eiav infinite quantumcunque finitum ? Decem
TtOiv ovpavdov* tos yap etTis KaTa^poinicreie millia annorum, decies centena millia, si
^s, 'iva Kep&i']<rr) x/ovtras dicendum est, et millia millium, quae
OWTWS 6 Trao-tjs T^S y^s finem habent, cum aeternitate comparari
Kvpios Kal diroTaa-a-ofjievos CCUTJ/, 0X1-
coi/, non possunt. Hue accedit, quia non so-
yov a^)i}<ri, Kal KaTovTair\a<riova \a^~ lum temporalem voluit laborem tuum
fidvei. Athanas. Vit. Antonii, p. 25. Deus, sed etiam brevem. August, in
51
Cum attenderis quid sis accepturus, Psal. xxx vi. Cone. TI.
XII.] OF MERITS. 485

" what thou art to receive, all the things that thou sufferest
will be vile unto thee, neither wilt thou esteem them
worthy
for which thou shouldest receive it. Thou wilt wonder
that so much is
given for so small a labour. For indeed,
brethren, for everlasting rest everlasting labour should be
undergone ;
being to receive everlasting felicity, thou oughtest
to sustain everlasting sufferings. But if thou shouldest
sustain everlasting labour, when shouldest thou come to

everlasting felicity ? So
cometh to pass, that thy tribu-
it

lation must of necessity be temporal, that it being finished,


thou mayest come to infinite felicity. But yet, brethren,
there might have been long tribulation for eternal felicity :

that, for example, because our felicity shall have no end,


our misery, and our labour, and our tribulations should be
of long continuance. For admit, they should continue a thou-
sand years; weigh a thousand years with eternity.
Why
dost thou weigh that which is finite, be it never so great,
with that which is infinite? Ten thousand years, ten hun-
dred thousand, if we should say, and a thousand thousand,
which have an end, cannot be compared with eternity. This
then thou hast, that God would have thy labour to be not
only temporal, but short also." And therefore doth the same
Father every where put us in mind, that God is become
our debtor, not by our deservings, but by his own gracious
" 52
promise: Man," saith he, " is faithful when he believeth
God promising; God is faithful when he performeth that
which he hath promised unto man. Let us hold him a
most faithful debtor, because we have him a most merciful
promiser. For we have not done him any pleasure, or lent
any thing to him, that we should hold him a debtor, seeing
we have from himself whatsoever we do offer unto him,
and it is from him whatsoever good we are." " 53 We have
not given any thing therefore unto him, and yet we hold
him a debtor. Whence a debtor ? because he is a promiser.

52
Fidel is homo est credens promittenti
]
et ex illo sit quicquid boni sumus. Id. in
Deo ; Deus est exhibens quod pro-
fidelis Psal. xxxii. Cone. i.

misit homini. Teneamus fidelissimum 53


Ergo non ei aliquid dedimus, et te-
debitorem, quia tenemus misericordissi- nemus debitorem. Unde debitorem ? quia
mum promissorem. Neque enim aliquid promissor est. Non dicimus Deo, Do-
ei commodavimus, aut mutuum commen- I

mine, redde quod accepisti, sed, Redde


davimus, ut teneamus eum debitorem, cum quod promisisti. Id. ibid, ct in Psal.
ab illo habeamus quicquid illi ofterimus, LXXXlll.
486 ANSWER TO A JEST IT S CHALLENGE. [CHAT.

We say not unto God, Lord, pay that which thou hast
11 " 51 Be
received, but, Pay that which thou hast promised.
thou secure, therefore ; hold him as a debtor, because thou
hast believed in him as a promiser." " 55 God is
faithful,
who hath made himself our debtor, not by receiving any
thing from us, but by promising so great things to us.
For to men hath he promised divinity, to those that are
mortal immortality, to sinners justification, to abjects glori-
fication. Whatsoever he promised, he promised to them that
were unworthy, that it might not be promised as wages for
works, but being grace, might according to the name be
graciously and freely given because that even ; this very
thing, that one doth live justly, so far as a man can live

justly, is not a matter of man's merit, but of the gift of


" 56 in those
God." Therefore, things which we have already,
let us praise God as the giver; in those things which as
yet we have not, let us hold him our debtor. For he is
become our debtor, not by receiving any thing from us,
but by promising what it
pleased him. For it is one thing
to say to a man, Thou art debtor to me, because I have
given to thee ; and another thing to say, Thou art debtor
to me, because thou hast promised me. When thou sayest,
Thou art debtor to me, beause I have given to thee, a
benefit hath proceeded from thee, though lent, not given ;
but when thou sayest, Thou art debtor to me, because
thou hast promised me, thou gavest nothing to him, and

54
Securus ergo esto ; tene debitorem, aeterno labore recte emitur. Sed noli ti-

quia credidisti in promissorem. Id. in mere, misericors est Deus. Id. in Psal.
Psal. Lxxxiii. circa finem. xciii.
55
Fidelis Deus qui se nostrum debito- 56
In his quae jam habemus, laudemus
rem non aliquid a nobis accipiendo,
fecit, Deum largitorem; in his qua? nondum
sed tanta nobis promittendo, &c. Promisit habemus, teneamus debitorem. Debitor
enim hominibus divinitatem, mortalibus enim factus est, non aliquid a nobis acci-
immortalitatem, peccatoribus justificatio- piendo, sed quod ei placuit promittendo.
nem, abjectis gloriticationem. Quicquid Aliter enim dicimus homini, Debes mihi,
promisit, indignis promisit, ut non quasi quia dedi tibi; et aliter dicimus, Debes
operibus merces promitteretur, sed gratia mihi, quia promisisti mihi. Quando dicis,
a nomine suo gratis daretur ; quia et hoc Debes mihi, quia dedi tibi, a te processit
ipsum quod juste vivit, in quantum homo beneficium, sed mutuatum, non donatum ;

potest juste vivere, non meriti humani, quando autem dicis, Debes mihi, quia pro-
sed beneficii est divini. Id. in Psal. cix. misisti mihi, tu nihil dedisti, et tamen
circa init. Quanto labore digna est requies Bonitas enim ejus qui promisit,
exigis.
qua? non habet finem. Si verum vis com- dabit, &c. Id. de Verbis Apostoli, Serm.
putare et verum judicare, aeterna requies
XII.] OF MERITS. 487

yet requirest of him. For the goodness of him that hath


promised will give it, &c."
" "The salvation of men
depends upon the sole mercy
of God," saith Theodoret ; " for we do not obtain it as the
wages of our righteousness, but it is the gift of God's
" 58 The crowns do excel the
goodness." fights, the rewards
are not to be compared with the labours; for the labour
is small, but
great is the gain that is hoped for. And
therefore the Apostle, Rom. viii. 18, called those things that
are looked for not wages, but glory; and Rom. vi. 23, 59 not

wages, but grace. For although a man should perform


the greatest and most absolute righteousness, things eternal
do not answer temporal labours in equal poise." The same
for this point is
taught by St Cyril of Alexandria, that
" 60
the crown" which we are to receive doth " much surpass
the pains" which we take for it. And the author of the
book of the Calling of the Gentiles, attributed unto Prosper,
observeth out of the parable, Matt. xx. 9, that God bestoweth
eternal life on those that are called at the
end of their days,
as well as them that had laboured " 61 not as
upon longer;
paying a price to their labour, but pouring out the riches
of his goodness upon them whom he had chosen without
works, that even they also who have sweat with much labour,
and have received no more than the might understand
last,
that they did receive a gift of grace, and not a due wages
for their works."
This was the doctrine taught in the Church for the
first five hundred years after Christ, which we find main-
tained also in the next five hundred. " 62 If the
King of
57 'H TU>V dvQptoirtav a?terna in aequilibrio non responded
<T(aTt]pia Id.
t;/OT?jTai TT/S Oefas (pi\avQp coir las' OVTC in Roman, vi. ult.
50
yap juttrBov SiKaioffuvt]'! TauTtji/ KapTrov- IIoXu TOV <TTe(pdvOV TOUS 7T01/OUS
/iteOa, a\\a T^S Oetas ecrriv Cyril. Alexandrin. Horn.
.

cwpov. MSS. Bibl. Bodleian, et nostrse Paschal, iv.


Theodor. in Sophoni. cap. 3. i
Non labori pretium solvens, sed divi-
58
Superant certamina coronae, non com- quos sine operibus
tias bonitatis suae in eos,

parantur cum laboribus remunerationes ; elegit, effundens ; ut etiam hi qui in multo


labor enim parvus est, sed magnum lucrum labore sudarunt, nee amplius quam no-

speratur. Et propterea non mercedem, sed vissimi acceperunt, intelligant donum se

gloriam vocavit ea quse exspectantur. Id. gratia?, non operum accepisse mercedem.
in Roman, viii. 18. Prosper de Vocat. Gent. lib. i. cap. 1J.
59 6a
Hie non dicit mercedem, sed gratiam. i Meritum meuni Regnator ccelestis si
Ktsi quis enim summam et absolutam jus- attenderet, aut exigua bona adipiscerer,
titiam pra-stitcrit; temporalibus laboribus aut magna supplicia ; et mei idoneus aesti-
488 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP

heaven should regard my merit," saith Ennodius, bishop of


" either I should little or
Pavia, get good, great punish-
ments; and judging of myself rightly, whither I could not
come by merits, I would not tend in desire. But thanks
be to him, who, that we may not be extolled, doth so cut
off our offences, that he bringeth our hope unto better
Our saith " 63 is not un-
things." glorification, Fulgentius,
justly called grace; not only because God doth bestow his
own gifts upon his own gifts, but also because the grace
of God's reward doth so much there abound, as that it
exceedeth incomparably and unspeakably all the merit of
the will and work of man, though good, and given from
" 64
God." For, although we did sweat," saith he who
beareth the name of Eusebius Emissenus, or Gallicanus,
" with all the labours of our soul and
body, although we
were exercised with all the strength of obedience, yet shall
not we be able to recompense and offer any thing worthy
in merit for the heavenly good things. The offices of this
life cannot be compared with the joys of the life
present
eternal. Although our members be wearied with watchings,
although our faces wax pale with fastings, yet the sufferings
of this time will not be worthy to be compared with the
future glory which shall be revealed in us. Let us knock,
therefore, dearly beloved, as much as we can, because we
cannot much as we ought: the future bliss may be
as

acquired, but estimated it cannot be."


" 65 Albeit thou hadst
good deeds equal in number to

mator, quo meritis pervenire non poteram, num merito pro ccelestibus bonis compen-
voto non tenderem. Sed gratias illi, qui sate et offerre valebimus. Non valent
delicta nostra sic ne extollamur resecat, vitas praesentis obsequia aeternae vitae gau-
ut spem ad laetiora (al. latiora) perducat. diis comparari. Lassescant licet membra
Ennod. Ticinens. lib. ii. Epist. x. ad Faust. vigiliis, pallescant licet ora jejuniis, non
63 Gratia autem etiam
ipsa ideo non erunt tamen condignae passiones hujus
injuste dicitur, quia non solum donis suis temporis ad futuram gloriam qua? revela-
Deus dona sua reddit; sed quia tantum bitur in nobis. Pulsemus ergo, carissimi,
etiam ibi gratia divinse retributionis ex- inquantum possumus, quia non possumus
uberat, ut incomparabiliter atque ineffa- quantum debemus futura beatitude ac-
:

biliter omne meritum, quamvis bonae et


quiri potest, aestimari non potest. Euseb.
ex Deo datae, humanae voluntatis atque Emissen. vel Gallican. ad Monachos,
operationis excedat. Fulgent, ad Mom- Ser. m.
65
mum, lib. i. cap. 10. 'Iardpid/j.a TOL<S aor/oois av KTJJO-T;
64
Totis licet et animae et corporis labo- KdTOpQwfJiaTa, OU067TOT6 I/lAOJ(TeiS TJ/V TOU
ribus desudemus, totis licet obedientiae Qeou ayaOoTrj-ra. otra ydp civ TIS Trpoae-
viribus exerceamur, nihil tamen condig- ve'y/o; Q((j>, CK TWV avrou TO. avrov Trpoar-
XII.] OF MERITS. 489

the stars," saith Agapetus the Deacon to the Emperor


"
thou never go beyond the goodness
shalt
Justinian, yet
of God. For whatsoever any man shall bring unto God,
he doth but offer unto him his own things out of his own
store; and as one cannot outstrip his own shadow in the
sun, which preventeth him always, although he make never
so much speed, so neither can men by their good doings
" G6 A11 the
outstrip the unmatchable bounty of God."
" convicted to be
righteousness of man," saith Gregory, is

unrighteousness, if it
strictly judged. be It needeth, there-

fore,prayer after righteousness, that that which being sifted


might fail, by the mere pity of the Judge might stand for
good. Let him therefore say, Although I had any righteous
thing, I would not answer, but I would make supplica-
tion to my Judge, Job ix. 15 as if he should more plainly ;

confess and say, Albeit I did grow up unto the work of


virtue, I should be enabled unto life, not by merits, but
by pardon." But you will say, " 67 If this bliss of the
saintsbe mercy, and is not obtained by merits, how shall
that stand which is written, And thou shalt render unto

every one according to his works? If it be rendered

according to works, how shall it be accounted mercy ?


But it is one thing to render according to and
works,
another thing to render for the works themselves. For
when it is said, according to works, the quality itself of
the works is understood, that whose works appear good,

67
avTij). /cat a> ou/c eo-riv VTrep/3iji>ai Quod si ilia sanctorum felicitas mise-
Tijv loiav ev TU> fjXiw <r/aai/, Tr/ooXa/n/Sa- non meritis acquiritur, ubi
ricordia est, et
vowav del KUI TOV Xiav eireryo/nei/oi>, eritquod scriptum est, Et tu reddes uni-
OUTCOS ovSe TI}V a.vvirepp\i}TOv TOV Qeov cuique secundum opera sua? Si secun-
Tats euTrouais u7rep/3tj<roj/TCU dum opera redditur, quomodo misericordia
Agapet. Diacon. Paraenes. ad aestimabitur ? Sed aliud est secundum
Justinian, sect. 43. opera reddere, et aliud propter ipsa opera
66 Omnis hu-
Ut enim saepe diximus, reddere. In eo enim quod secundum opera
mana justitia injustitia esse convincitur, dicitur, ipsaoperum qualitas intelligitur ;
si districte judicetur. Piece ergo post ut cujus apparuerint bona opera, ejus sit
justitiam indiget, ut quae succumbere et retributio gloriosa. Illi namque beatae
discussa poterat, ex sola Judicis pietate vitae in qua cum Deo et de Deo vivitur,
convalescat, &c. Dicat ergoy Qui etiamsi nullus potest aaquari labor, nulla opera
habuero quippiam justum, non responde- comparari ; praesertim cum Apostolus di-
bo, sed meum Judicem deprecabor ; velut, cat,Non sunt condignae passiones hujus
si apertius fateatur, dicens, Etsi ad opus temporis ad futuram gloriam quae revela-
virtutis excrevero, ad vitam non ex meri- bitur in nobis. Id. in Psal. Pcenitent. vn.
tis, sed ex venia convalesce. Gregor. vers. 9.
Moral, in Job. lib. ix. cap. 14.
490 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^ CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

his reward may be glorious. For unto that blessed life,

wherein we are to live with God and by God, no labour


can be equalled, no works
compared, seeing the Apostle
saith, The
sufferings of present time are not ivorthy
this
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in
" 68
us." By the righteousness of works no 11man shall be
saved, but only by the righteousness of faith, saith Bede.
And therefore " 69 no man should believe, that either his
freedom of will or his merits are sufficient to bring him
unto bliss; but understand, that he can be saved by the
11

grace of God only. The same author, writing upon those


words of David, Psalm xxiv. 5, He shall receive a blessing
from the Lord, and righteousness from
the God of his
the to be " 70 that for
salvation, expoundeth blessing this,
the present time he shall merit, or work well, and for the
future shall be rewarded well, and that not by merits, but
11

by grace only.
To the same purpose Elias Cretensis, the interpreter of
" 71
Gregory Nazianzen, writeth thus: By mercy we ought
to understand that reward which God doth repay unto us.

For we as servants do owe virtue, that the best things,


and such as are grateful, we should pay and offer unto
God as a certain debt, considering that we have nothing
which we have not received from him; and God on the
other side, as our Lord and Master, hath pity on us, and
doth bestow rather than unto us. " 72 This, there- 11

repay
11
fore, is true humility, saith Anastasius Sinaita or Nicaenus,

68 habeamus quod non ab ipso acceperimus


Per justitiam factorum nullus salva- i :

bitur, sed per solam justitiam fidei. Bed. ; Deus autem velut Dominus et herus nos-
in Psal. Lxxvii. ter miseretur, nobisque potius donat quam
69 Instruit videlicet, ut nemo vel liberta- rependit. Elias in Nazianzeni Orat. habit,
tern arbitrii vel merita sua sufficere sibi ad i
in Elect. Eulalii.
72 OVKOVV
beatitudinem credat, sed sola gratia Dei se Taireu/o^/ooo-twj a'Xj6/s e<rrt
salvari posse in telligat. Id. in Psal.xxxi. ;
TO TrpaTTeiv TU dyaQd, \oyi^earQai de
70
Accipiet benedictionem, id est, mul- eavrov dicddapTOV /ecu dvdfrov TOV Qeov,
8 id novnv Tt}v fpi\avQpw7riav avro
tiplicationem a Domino ; hanc scilicet, ut
in prsesenti bene promereatur, et in future vai vo/JLi^ovra. oaa yap dyaQd edv TTOITJ-

bene remuneretur. Et hoc non ex meritis, <Tiafj.ev,


OVK diro\oyovfj.eQa TW 9e<3 virep
TOV
sed ex sola gratia. Id. in Psal. xxiii. [tovov av-rov depot dvairveopt-
|

71
Debemus vov. OTCLV ydp Kal Trdvra, o<ra
per misericordiam intelli-
!

gere mercedein illam, quam nobis Deus |


irpo^eveyKw^ev avrw, ov ^jpetacr-

Nos enim tanquam servi virtu- {Ju<rQ6v'


CLVTOV ydp e<rri TU
rependit.
Ta
debemus, ut optima quaeque Deo
tern et I's Se 'ioia \afjtfldviov
covvai rol<s TrpoarQepovcriv av-rfa
grata tanquam debitum quoddam exsol- fiurtiov

vamus ac ofFeramus, quippe quum nihil avrd. Anastas. Quaest. cxxxv.


j
XII.] OF MERITS. 491

" do good works, but to account one's self unclean and


to

unworthy of God's favour, thinking to be saved by his


goodness alone. For whatsoever good things we do, we
answer not God for the very air alone which we do breathe.
And when we have offered unto him all the things that we
have, he doth not owe us any reward, for all things are
his and none, receiving the things that are his own, is
;

bound to give a reward unto them that bring the same


unto him." In the book set out by the authority of Charles
the Great against images, " 73 the ark of the covenant is
said to signify our Lord and Saviour, in whom alone we
have the covenant of peace with the Father. Over which
the propitiatory is said to be placed, because above the
commandments either of the Law or of the Gospel, which
are founded in him, the
mercy of the said Mediator taketh
place, by which, not by the works of the Law which we
have done, neither willing, nor running, but by his having
mercy upon us, we are saved." So Ambrosius Ansbertus,
expounding that place, Rev. xix. 7, Let us be glad and
rejoice, and give glory to him, for the marriage of the
Lamb come, and his wife hath made herself ready:
is
" 74 In " do we
this," saith he, give glory to him, when
we do confess that by no precedent merits of our good
deeds, but by his mercy only, we have attained unto so
great a dignity." And Rabanus, in his commentaries upon
the Lamentations of Jeremiah " 75
: Lest they should say,
Our were accepted for their merit, and therefore
fathers

they obtained such great things at the hand of the Lord,


he adjoineth, that this was not given to their merits, but
because it so pleased God, whose free gift is whatsoever he
bestoweth." Haymo, writing upon those words, Psalm

73
Area fcederis secundum quosdam ,
74 In eo autem damus illi gloriam, quo
Dominum et Salvatorem nostrum, in quo nullis praecedentibus bonorura actuum
solo fcedus pacis apud Patrem habemus, meritis, sed sola nos ejus misericordia ad
designat, &c. Cui propitiatorium super- !
tantam dignitatem pervenisse fateamur.
ponitur, quia scilicet legalibus sive evan- j
Ambros. Ansbert. lib. viii. in
Apocalyps.
gelicis praBceptis, quae in eo fundata sunt, j
cap. xix.
supereminet misericordia ejusdem Media- j
7S Ne dicerent, Patres nostri suo merito
toris ; per quam non ex
operibus legis , placuerunt, ideo tanta sunt a Domino con-
quae fecimus nos, neque volentes, neque j secuti, intulit, non meritis datum, sed quia
rurrentes, sed ejus miseratione salva- Deo placitum,
ita sit cujus est gratuitum
mur. Opus rarolin. de Imaginib. lib. i. omne quod praestat. Raban. in Jercm.
cap. 15. lib. xviii. cap. 2.
492 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

cxxxii. 10, For thy servant David's sake refuse not the
" For
face of thine anointed, saith that, thy servant
David's sake" is as much to say as, " For the merit of
Christ himself ;" and from thence collecteth this doctrine,
" that none
ought to presume of his own merits, but expect
all his salvation from the merits of Christ." So in another
" 77 When we our
place: perform repentance," saith he,
" let us know that we can
give nothing that is worthy for
the appeasing of God, but that only in the blood of that
immaculate and singular Lamb we can be saved." And
" 78 Eternal life is rendered to none but
again: by debt,
" 79 It is of
given by free mercy." necessity that believers
should be saved only by the faith of Christ," saith Sma-
" 80
ragdus the Abbot. By grace, not by merits, are we
saved of God," saith the author of the Commentaries upon
St Mark, falsely attributed to St Jerome.
That this doctrine was by God's great mercy preserved
in the Church the next 500 years also, as well as in those
middle times, appeareth most evidently by those instructions
and consolations which were prescribed to be used unto such
81
as were ready to depart out of this life. This form of
preparing men for their death was commonly to be had in
all libraries, and was found inserted among the
particularly
Epistles of Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was
commonly accounted to be the author of it. The substance
thereof may be seen, (for the copies vary, some being shorter

76
Propter David servum tuum, id est, per debitum, sed solummodo per gratui-
propter meritum ipsius Christi; et hie tam misericordiam, quibus vult, tribuit ;
datur plane intelligi, nullum de meritis nullus contra justitiam Dei murmurare
suis debere praesumere, sed omnem sal- potest, quoniam cui vult, miseretur, et
vationem ex Christi meritis exspectare. quern vult, indurat ; miseretur sola boni-
Hay mo in Psal. cxxxi. tate,indurat nulla iniquitate. Id. Homil.
77 Sed et nos agentes poenitentiam scia- in Dominic. Septuagesimae.
79
mus, nihil nos dignum dare posse ad pla- Necesse est sola fide Christi salvari
candum Deum, sedsolummodoin sanguine credentes. Smaragd. in Galat. cap. iii.
80 non meritis, salvati sumus a
immaculati et singularis Agni nos posse Gratia,
salvari. Id. in Mich. cap. vi. Deo. Commentar. in Marc. cap. xiv. inter
78 Et quia vita aeterna nulli per debitum \]/6v&eTriypa<i>a Hieronym.
redditur, sed per gr^tuitam misericordiam
81
Formula ilia infirmos jam animam
datur. Recte paterfamilias vocans unum agentes interrogandi, in Bibliothecis pas-
eorum ait, Amice, non facio tibi injuriam. sim obvia; quae et separatim Anselmo
Haymo Halberstat. edit. Colon, ann. 1533. Cantuariensi inscribitur, et operi Episto-
Et postQuasi enim injuriam Deus fa-
: larum inserta reperitur. Georg. Cassand.
cere videretursi quod ex debito deberet, in Appendic. ad Opusc. Jo. Roffens. de
ex praemio non redderet cum vero nullis
;
Fiducia et Misericordia Dei.
XII.]
OK MKHITS. 493

and some larger than others,) in a Tractate written by a


Cistercian Monk, of the Art of Dying Well, which I have
in written hand, and have seen also printed in the
year
1488 and 1504, in the book called Hortulus Animce ; in
Cassander's Appendix to the book of John Fisher, Bishop
of Rochester, de Fiducia et Misericordia Dei, edit. Colon,
ann. 1556; Casper Ulenbergius's Motives, Caus. xiv. p. 462,
463, edit. Colon, ann. 1589; in the Roman Sacerdotal, part i.
Tract, v.
cap. 13, fol. 116, edit. Venet. ann. 1585; in the
book entituled, Sacra Institutio Baptizandi juoota Ritum
SanctcB Romance Ecclesice^ ex Decreto Concilii Triden-
tini restituta, &c. printed at Paris in the year 1575, and
in a like book entituled Ordo Baptizandi cum Modo Visi-

tandi, printed at Venice the same year; out of which the


Spanish inquisitors, as well in their new as in their old
Expurgatory Index, the one set out by Cardinal Quiroga
in the year 1584, the other
by the Cardinal of Sandoval
and Roxas in the year 1612, command these interrogatories
to be blotted out " 82
Dost thou believe to come to glory,
:

not by thine own merits, but by the virtue and merit of the
passion of our Lord Jesus Christ?" And, "Dost thou
believe that our Lord Jesus Christ did die for our salvation,
and that none can be saved by his own merits, or by any
other means, but by the merit of his passion?"
Whereby
we may observe, how late it is since our Romanists in this
main and most substantial point, which is the very founda-
tion of all our comfort, have most
shamefully departed
from the faith of their forefathers. In other copies of this
same instruction, which are followed by Cassander, Ulen-
83
bergius, and Cardinal Hosius himself, the last question
82 83
SACERDOS. Credis non propriis Sed et Anselmus Archiepiscopus
meritis, sed passionis Domini nostri Jesu Cantuariensis interrogationes quasdam
Christi virtute et merito, ad gloriam per- prcescripsisse dicitur infirmis in extremis
venire ? Respondeat infirmus. Credo. constitutis ; inter quas extrema est : Cre-
SACERDOS. Credis, quod Dominus nos- dis te non posse nisi per mortem Christi
terJesus Christus pro nostra salute mor- salvari ? Respondet injirmus, Etiam.
tuus sit ; et quod ex propriis meritis vel Turn illi dicitur , Age ergo, dum superest
alio modo nullus possit salvari, nisi in hac sola morte fiduciam
in te anitna, in
merito passionis ejus ? Respvndeat in- tuam constitue ; in nulla alia re fiduciam
Jirmus, Credo. Ordo Baptizandi et Vi- habe ; huic morti te totum committe, hac
sitandi, edit. Venet. ann. 1575, fol. 43, sola te totum contege, totum immisce te
et Institut. Baptizandi, edit. Paris, ann. in hac morte, totum confige ; in hac morte
1575, fol. 35. a. et Sacerdotal. Rom. edit. te totum involve. Et si Dominus Deus
Venet. ann. 1585, fol. 116. b. voluerit te judicare, die, Domine, mortem
494 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

to the " Dost thou believe


sick man is this
propounded :

that thou canst not be saved but by the death of Christ?"


Whereunto when he hath made answer affirmatively, he is
directed to make use thereof in this manner " Go
presently :

to therefore,as long as thy soul remaineth in thee, place thy


whole confidence in this death only, have confidence in no
other thing, commit thyself wholly to this death, with this
alone cover thyself wholly, intermingle thyself wholly in
this death, fasten thyself wholly, wrap thy whole self in
this death. And if the Lord God will judge thee, say,
Lord, I oppose the death of our Lord Jesus Christ betwixt
me and thy judgment; no otherwise do I contend with
thee. And if he say unto thee, that thou art a sinner; say,
Lord, I put the death of the Lord Jesus Christ betwixt
thee and my sins. If he say unto thee, that thou hast
deserved damnation, say, Lord, I set the death of our Lord
Jesus Christ betwixt me and my bad merits; and I offer
his merit instead of the merit which I ought to have, but

yet have not. If he say, that he is angry with thee, say,


Lord, I interpose the death of our Lord Jesus Christ
betwixt me and thine anger."
Add hereunto the following sentences of the doctors of
these latter ages: "
84
We cannot suffer or bring in any-
thing worthy of the reward that shall be," saith (Ecumenius.
So Petrus Blesensis, Archdeacon of Bath " 85 No trouble :

can be endured in this vital death, which is able equally to


answer the joys of heaven." And Anselm, Archbishop of
" 86 If a man should
Canterbury, more fully before him:
serve God a thousand years, and that most fervently, he
should not deserve of condignity to be half a day in the

Domini nostri Jesu Christi objicio inter tuam. Hosius in Confess. Petricoviens.
j

me et tuum judicium aliter tecum non


;
j
cap. 73.
84 OVK
contendo. Et si tibi dixerit, quia pecca- i

i<r*xyop.ev a%i6v TL TT/S eKel dvri-


tor es, die, Domine, mortem Domini j
doerews iraQelv r; crvveureveyKai. CEcu-
Jesu Christi pono inter peccata mea.
te et i men. in Roman, viii. p. 312.
85 Nihil moleste potest sustineri in hac
Si dixerit tibi, quod mefuisti damnatio-
nem, die, Domine, mortem Domini nostri morte vitali, quod coelestibus gaudiis ex
Jesu Christi obtendo inter me et mala aequo respondere sufficiat. Petr. Blesens.
merita meaipsiusquemeritum offero pro
;
in Job. cap. ult.
86
merito, quod ego debuissem habere, nee Sihomomilleannis serviretDeo,etiam
habeo. Si tibi est iratus, ferventissime; non mereretur ex condig-
dixerit, quod
die, Domine, mortem Domini nostri no, dimidiam diem esse in regno eoelorum.
Jesu Christi oppono inter me et iram Anselm. in lib. de Mensuratione Crucis.
XII.] OF M Kit ITS.

kingdom of heaven/" lladulphus Ardens, expounding those


words of the parable, Matth. xx. 13, Didst not thou agree
with me for a penny? " s7 Let no man out of these
words,"
saith he, " think that God is, as it were, tied by agreement
to pay that which he hath promised. For as God is free
to promise, so is he free to
pay ; especially seeing as well
merits as rewards are his grace. For God doth crown
nothing else in us but his own grace, who if he would deal
strictly with us, no man living should be justified in his
sight. Whereupon the Apostle, who laboured more than
all, saith, / reckon that the sufferings of this time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us. Therefore this agreement is nothing else
but God's voluntary promise." And " 8 db not wonder," -

saith he in another sermon, " if I call the merits of the just

graces ; for as the Apostle witnesseth, we have nothing which


we have not received from God, and that freely. But
because by one grace we come unto another, they are
called merits, but improperly. For as Augustine witnesseth,
God crowneth only his own grace in us." So Rupertus
Tuitiensis: " 89
The greatness or the eternity of the heavenly
glory is not a matter of merit, but of grace." The same
90
doth Bernardus Morlanensis express in these rhythmical
verses of his :

91
Urbs Sion inclyta, patria condita littore tuto;
Te peto, te colo, te flagro, te volo, canto, saluto.
Nee meritis peto, nam meritis meto morte perire:
Nee reticens tego, quod meritis ego filius irse.
87 83
Nemo, fratres, ex his verbis putet Ne miremini, fratres, si merita jus-
Deum quasi ex conventione astrictum esse torum gratias voco; teste enim apostolo,
ad reddendum promissum. Sicut enim nihil habemus quod non a Deo et gratis
Deus est liber ad promittendum, ita est accepimus. Sed quoniam per unam gra-
liber ad reddendum ; praesertim cum tarn tiam pervenimus ad aliam, merita dicun-
merita quam przemia sint gratia sua. Ni- tur et improprie. Teste enim Augustino,
hil enim aliud quam gratiam suam coronat solam gratiam suam coronat in nobis
innobisDeus; qui si vellet in nobis agere Deus. Id. Dominic, xvm. post Trini-
districte, non justificaretur in conspectu tat. Homil. i.

ejus omnis vivens. Unde apostolus, qui


plus omnibus laboravit, dicit, Existimo
89
Res ^ nQn ^.^ ^
magnitudo vel atemitM coelestis lo _
quod non sunt condign* passiones hujus Tuk in Johan
.

Rupert 1{b
temporis ad futuram gloriam quae revela- 1.
cap.
bitur in nobis. Ergo haec conventio nihil 90 Bernard. Cluniacens. de Contemptu
aliud est, quam voluntaria Dei promissio.
Mundi, lib. i.
Rad. Ardens Dominic, in Septuagesima,
91
Homil. IT. Al. turris et cditn.
496 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

Vita quidem mea, vita nimis rea, mortua vita;


Quippe reatibus exitialibus obruta, trita.
Spe tamen ambulo, prsemia postulo speque fideque:
Ilia perennia postulo prsemia nocte dieque.

But Bernard of Claraevalle, above others, delivereth this


doctrine most sweetly " It is " that
92
necessary," saith he,
:

first of all thou shouldest believe, that thou canst not have

remission of sins but by the mercy of God ; then, that


thou canst not at all have any whit of a good work, unless
he likewise give it thee; lastly, that by no works thou
canst merit eternal life, unless that also be freely given
unto thee." " 93
we will name those
Otherwise, if properly
which we call our merits, of they be certain seminaries
hope, incitements of love, signs of secret predestination,
foretokens of future happiness, the way to the kingdom,
not the cause of reigning." " 94
Dangerous is the dwelling
of them that trust in their merits; dangerous, because
ruinous." " 95
For this is the whole merit of man, if he
put all his trust in him who saveth the whole man."
46 96
Therefore my merit the mercy of the Lord: I am
is

not poor in merit, so long as he is not poor in mercy ;


and if the mercies of the Lord be many, my merits also
are many." With which that passage of the Manual, falsely
fathered upon St Augustine, doth accord so justly, that the
one appeareth to be plainly borrowed from the other :
u 97
A11 in the death of Lord. His death
my hope is
my
95
92 Necesse est primo omnium credere, Hoc enim totum hominis meritum,
quod remissionem peccatorum habere non sitotam spem suam ponat in eo qui to-
possis, nisi per indulgentiam Dei deinde ;
tum hominem salvum facit. Ibid. Serm.
quod nihil prorsus habere queas operis xv.
boni, nisi et hoc dederit ipse ; postremo,
96
Meum proinde meritum miseratio
quod aeternam vitam nullis potes operi- Domini. Non plane sum meriti inops,
bus promeieri, nisi gratis detur et ilia. quandiu ille miserationum non fuerit.
Bernard. Serm. i. in Annuntiat. B. Ma- Quod si misericordiae Domini multae,
riae. multis nihilominus ego in meritis sum.
93 Id. in Cant. Serm. LXI.
Alioquin, si proprie appellentur ea
quae dicimus nostra merita, spei quaedam
97 Tota spes mea est in morte Domini
sunt seminaria, caritatis incentiva, oc- mei. Mors ejus meritum meum, refu-
cultae praedestinationis indicia, futurae gium meum, salus, vita et resurrectio
felicitatis praesagia, via regni, non causa mea. Meritum meum miseratio Domini.
regnandi. Id. in fine libri de Grat. et Lib. Non sum quamdiu ille mi-
meriti inops,
Arbitr. serationum Dominus non defuerit; et
94 misericordiae Domini multae, multis ego
Periculosa habitatio eorum qui in
meritis suis sperant ; periculosa, quia rui- sum in meritis. Manual, cap. 22, Tom.
nosa. Id. in Psal. Qui habitat, Serm. i. ix. Operum Augustini.
XII 1
OF MERITS. 497

is my merit, my refuge, my salvation, life, and resurrec-


tion.
My merit is the mercy of the Lord. I am not
poor in merit so long as that Lord of mercies shall not
fail ; and as long as his mercies are much, much am I in

merits."
Neither are the testimonies of the Schoolmen wanting in
this cause. affirmed to " give the
For where " ^God" is

kingdom of heaven for good merits," or good works, some


made here a difference betwixt pro bonis meritis and propter
The " a
bona merita. former, they said, did denote sign,
or a way, or some occasion ;" and in that sense they
admitted the proposition but according to the latter ex-
:

pression they would not receive it, because propter did note
" an efficient cause." And
yet for the salving of that also
the Cardinal of Cambray, Petrus de Alliaco, delivereth us
this ""This word propter is sometimes taken
distinction:

by way of consequence, and then it noteth the order of the


following of one thing upon another, as when it is said,
The reward for the merit ; for nothing else is
is
given
signified thereby but that the reward is given after the

merit, and not but after the merit: sometimes again it is


taken " 100 forasmuch as a cause" also is
causally." And,
accounted " that upon the being whereof another thing doth
follow, a thing may be said to be a cause two manner of
ways : one way properly, when upon the presence of the

08
Nota quod cum dicitur, Deus pro teria de merito. Quandoque vero capitur
bonis meritis dabit vitam aetemam, pro causaliter. Pet. Camaracens. in i. Sen-
primo notat signum, vel viam, vel occa- tent. Dist. i. Quzest. n. DD.
100 ad cujus
sionem aliquam; sed si dicatur, Propter Quia enim causa est illud
bona merita dabit vitam aetemam, propter esse sequitur aliud, dupliciter potest ali-
notat causam efficientem. Ideo non re- quid dici causa uno modo proprie,
:

cipitur a sed hanc recipiunt,


quibusdam ;
quando ad praesentiam esse unius virtute
Pro bonis meritis, et consimiles earum, ejus et ex natura rei sequitur esse alterius ;

assignantes differentiam inter pro et prop- et sic ignis est causa caloris : alio modo
ter. Georg. Cassander, Epist. xix. ad improprie, quando ad praesentiam esse
Jo. Molinaeum, Oper. p. 1109, ex libro unius sequitur esse alterius, non tarn en
MS. vetusti cujusdam Scholastici. virtute ejus, nee ex natura rei, sed ex sola
99
H sec dictio
propter quandoque capi- voluntate alterius ; et sic actus meritorius
tur consecutive, et tune denotat ordinem dicitur causa respectu praemii. Sic etiam
consecutionis unius rei ad aliam ; ut cum causa sine qua non dicitur causa. Ex
dicitur,Praemium datur propter meritum. quo sequitur, quod causa sine qua non
Nihil enim aliud significatur nisi quod non debet absolute et simpliciter dici
post meritum datur praemium, et non nisi causa, quia proprie non est causa. Id.

post meritum ; sicut alias patebit in ma- in Sent. iv. Quaest. i. Artie. 1. D.
I I
498 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

being of the one, by the virtue thereof, and out of the


nature of the thing, there followeth the being of the other;
and thus is fire the cause of heat : another way improperly,
when upon the presence of the being of the one there
followeth the being of the other, yet not by the virtue
thereof, nor out of the nature of the thing, but only out
of the will of another ; and so a meritorious act is said
to be a cause in respect of the reward ;" as causa sine
qua non also is said to " be a cause," though it be none
"
properly."
Among those famous clerks that lived in the family of
Richard Angervill, Bishop of Durham, in the days of
Edward the Third, Thomas Bradwardin, who was afterwards
Archbishop Canterbury, Richard Fitzraufe, afterward
of

Archbishop of Armagh, and Robert Holcot, the Dominican,


were of special note. The first of these, in his defence of
the cause of God against thePelagians of his time, dis-
puteth this point at large,
shewing
101
that " merit is not the
cause of everlasting reward;" and that when the Scriptures
and Doctors do affirm that God will reward the good for
" the
their good merits, or works, propter did not signify
cause" but either " the cause of
properly, improperly,
" the " the
knowing" it, or order," or disposition of the
subject" thereunto. Richard of Armagh, whom my country-
men commonly do call St Richard of Dundalk, because he
was there born and buried, intimateth this to be his mind,
that the reward is here " 102 not for the
rendered, condignity
of the work, but for the promise, and so for the justice
of the rewarder;" as heretofore we have heard out of
" merit
Bernard. Holcot, though in words he maintain the
of condignity," yet he confesseth with the Master of the
Sentences, that God is
hereby made our debtor, ex natura

101
Is in laudatissima ilia Summa con- Opus, edit. Lond. ann. 1618, a p. 350 ad
tra Pelagianos copiose et erudite disputat, 353, ubi lib. i. cap. 39. Nullus potest
Meritum non esse causam aeterni praemii ; reddere plenarie debitum quod accepit a

cumque Scriptura et doctores confirment, Deo, quare nee quicquam mereri ab eo ex


Deum praemiaturum bonos propter merita jure debito et condigno.
sua bona, propter non significare causam 102Non propter condignitatem operis,
proprie, sed improprie, vel causam cog- sed propter promissionem, et sic propter
noscendi, vel ordinem, vel denique dispo- justitiam praemiantis. Armachan. in
sitionem subjecti. Georg. Cassand. Epist. lib. xii. cap. 21.
Quaest. Armenorum,
xix. ut supra. Vide ipsum Bradwardini
XII.] OK MKKIT*.

sui promissi, non e,v natura noxtri runtniixxi, out of the *

nature of his own promise, not out of the nature of our


doing;" and that our works have this value in them, not
naturally, as if there were so great goodness in the nature
or substance of the merit, that everlasting life should be
due unto it, but legally, in regard of God's ordinance and
even " 103
appointment; as a little piece of copper, of its
own nature or natural value, is not worth so much as a
loaf of bread, but by the institution of the prince is worth
so much." And in this manner " lw we may say," saith he,
u that our works are
worthy of life everlasting by grace,
and not by the substance of the act. For God hath ordained,
that he that worketh well in grace should have life ever-

lasting; and therefore by the law and grace of Christ our


Prince we merit condignly everlasting life." Whereby we
may see how rightly it hath been observed
by Vasquez,
105
that divers of those whom he accounteth Catholics do
" from us " only in words," but " agree in deed." Of
differ"
which number he nameth 106 Gulielmus Parisiensis, 107 Scotus,
108 109 110
Ockam, Gregorius Ariminensis, Gabriel Biel with his
111 112
Supplement, the Canons of Cullen in their Antididagma

03
Sicut parva pecunia cupri, ex na- in. sect.Hie potest did. Id. in iv. Dis-
tura sua sive naturali vigore, non valet tinct. XL ix. Quaest. vi. Loquendo de
tantum sicut unus panis, sed ex insti- stricta justitia, Deus nulli nostrum prop-
tutione principis tantum valet. Rob. ter quaecunque merita est debitor perfec-

Holcot. in lib. Sapient, cap. 3, Lect. tionis reddendae tarn intense, propter
XXXVI. immoderatum excessum illius perfectionis
104
Possumus dicere, quod opera nostra ultra ilia merita.
sunt condigna vitae aeternae ex gratia, non 108
Gulielm. Ockam, in i. Sent. Dis-
ex substantia actus. Statuit enim Deus xvn.
tinct, Quaest. n. sect. Ideo dico
quod bene operans in gratia habebit vitam aliter,
asternam. Et ergo per legem et gratiam 109
Sent. Distinct, xvn.
Gregor. in i.

Principis nostri Christi meremur de con- Artie. 2, in confirmationibus


i.
Quaest.
digno vitam aatemam. Ibid. secundae conclusionis et solutione quarti
105
Contingere enim potest, ut si veram
argument! contra eandem.
causam et rationem meriti non assigne-
110 Sent. Distinct, xvii.
Gabriel in i.
mus, verbis solum ab haereticis dissiden-
Quaest. HI. Artie. 3, Dub. 2, et in it
tes reipsa cum eis conveniamus, atque in
Distinct, xxvii. Quaest. HI. Artie. 3,
eorum sententiam, velimus nolimus, con-
Dub. 2.
sentire cogamur; quod sane aliquibus
111
Catholicis in hac controversia accidisse, Supplement. Gabriel, in iv. Dis-
non obscure inferius patebit. Gabr. Vas- tinct. XLIX. Quaest. iv. Artie. 2, Con-

quez, in Imam 2dac, Quaest. cxiv. Dispu- clus. 3.


112
tat. ccxiv. cap. 1. Antididagm. Coloniens. cap. 12,
106
Gulielm. Paris. Tract, de Meritis. de Praemio et Retribut. Bonorum Ope-
107 Scotusini. Sent. Dist. xvn. Qusest. j
rum.
I I 2
500 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

113 114 115


and Enchiridion, Alphonsus de Castro,
Joh. Bunderius,
116
and Andreas Vega, who was present at the handling of
these matters in the last Tridentine Council.
All these, and sundry others beside them, hold that the
dignity of the good works done by God's children doth not
proceed from the value of the works themselves, but only
from the gracious promise and acceptation of God. Yea,
Gregorius Ariminensis,
m that most able and careful defender
of St Augustine, as Vega styleth him, concludeth peremp-
" 118 that no act of
torily, man, though issuing from never
so great charity, meriteth of condignity from God either
eternal life, or yet any other reward, whether eternal or

temporal." The same conclusion is by Durand, the " most


resolute" doctor, as 119 Gerson termeth him, thus confirmed:
" 120 That which is conferred rather out of the
liberality of
the Giver than out of the due of the work, doth not fall
within the compass of the merit of condignity, strictly and

properly taken. But whatsoever we receive of God, whether


it be
grace or whether it be
glory, whether temporal or
spiritual good, whatsoever good work we have before done
for it, yet we receive the same rather and more principally
out of God's liberality, than out of the due of the work.
Therefore nothing at all falleth within the compass of the
merit of condignity, so taken." And " 121 the cause hereof is,"
113 120
Enchirid. addit. Concilio Coloniensi, Quod redditur potius ex liberalitate
tit. de Justific. sect. Et ut semel hunc ar- dantis quam ex debito operis, non cadit
ticulum. sub merito de condigno stricte et proprie
114
Jo. Bunder. Compend. Concertatio- accepto, ut expositum est. Sed quicquid
nis, tit. 6, Artie. 5. a Deo accipimus, sive sit gratia sive sit
115
Alphons. contra H seres, lib. x. tit. gloria, sive bonum temporale vel spiri-
Meritum, et lib. vii. tit. Gratia. tuale, praecedente in nobis propter hoc
lie
Vega in Opusc. de Justificat. Quaest. quocunque bono opere, potius et princi-
v. ad 1 et 3. palius accipimus ex liberalitate Dei, quam
117 Valens ille Gregorius Ariminensis, reddatur ex debito operis. Ergo nihil
maximus et studiosissimus Divi Augus- penitus cadit sub merito de condigno sic
tini Id. ibid. Quaest. vi. accepto. Durand. in ii. Sent. Distinct.
propugnator.
118 Ex hoc ulterius infero, quod nedum xxvu. Quaest. n. sect. 12.
121
sed nee alicujus alterius prae-
vitas aetemae, Causa autem hujus est, quia et illud
mii, aetemi vel temporalis, aliquis actus quod sumus, et quod habemus, sive sunt
hominis, ex quacunque caritate elicitus, boni actus, sive boni habitus seu usus,
est de condigno meritorius apud Deum. totum est in nobis ex liberalitate divina

Gregor. in i. Sent. Distinct, xvn. Quaest. gratis dante et conservante. Et quia ex


i. Artie. 2. dono gratuito nullus obligatur ad dandum
119
Durandus utique resolutissimus. amplius, sed potius recipiens magis obli-
Jo. Gerson. Epist. ad Studentes Collegii gatur danti; ideo ex bonis habitibus, et
Navarrae. ex bonis actibus sive usibus nobis a Deo
XII.] OF MKRITS. 501

saith " because both that which we are and that which
he,
we have, whether they be good acts or good habits, or
the use of them, is wholly in us by God's liberality,
freely
giving and preserving the same. Now, because none is
bound by his own free gift to give more, but the receiver
rather is more bound to him that giveth, therefore by the

good habits, and by the good acts or uses which God hath

given us, God is not bound to us by any debt of justice


to give any thing more, so as if he did not give it he
should be unjust, but we are rather bound to God. And
to think or rashness or blasphemy."
say the contrary is

Of judgment with Durand was Jacobus de Ever^


the same
baco, as Marsilius witnesseth, who delivereth his own opinion
" 122 If
touching this matter in these three conclusions. 1.

we works in themselves, or as they proceed


consider our
also from co-operating grace, they are not such works as
deserve eternal life of condignity ;" for proof whereof he
bringeth in many reasons, and that of Durand's for one :

" 123 If for the works


wrought by grace and free-will, although
never so great, eternal life should be due unto any by con-
dignity, then God should do him injury if he did not give
eternal life unto him and so God by those great good things
;

which he had given should be constrained in way of justice


to add more great thereunto ; which reason doth not com-
2. "
124
prehend." Such works as these may be said to
merit eternal of
life
condignity by divine acceptation, ori-
ginally proceeding from the merit of the passion of Christ."
" m Works done
3.
by grace do merit eternal life by way
of congruity, in respect of God's liberal disposition, who

datis,Deus non obligatur nobis ex aliquo nis, operatis deberetur vita aeterna, tune
debito justitiaa ad aliquid amplius dan- ,
Deus illi injuriam faceret, si sibi vitam
dum, ita quod si non dederit sit injustus ; !
aeternam non tribueret ; et sic Deus ex
sed potius nos sumus Deo obligati. Et magnis datis bonis cogeretur sub justitia
|

sentire seu dicere oppositura est teme- j


addere ampliora :
quod ratio non capit.
rarium seu blasphemum. Ibid. sect. !
Ibid.
124
13, 14. Hujusmodi opera possunt dici vitas
122
Considerando opera nostra secun- aeternae meritoria de condigno, ex accep-
dum se, vel etiam prout sunt ex gratia tatione divina originaliter procedente ex

cooperante, non sunt opera meritoria merito passionis Christi. Ibid.


125
vitae aeternae de condigno. Marsil. de Opera facta ex gratia merentur vi-
Inghen, in ii. Sent. Quaest. xvui. Art. 4. tam aeternam de congruo ex liberali Dei
123 Si de condigno ex operibus gratia et dispositione, qua disposuit ea sic prae-
libero arbitrio, ctiam quantumlibet mag- miare. Ibid.
502 ANSWER TO A JESUIT'S CHALLENGE. [CHAP.

11
hath so purposed to reward them. Afterwards he proveth
out of the Apostle, Rom. vi. 23, that Eternal life is given
out of God's grace, not out of our righteousness ; and that
God in rewarding us doth neither exercise commu-
thus
tative justice, "
127
because in our good works we give nothing
unto God for which by way of commutation the reward
should be due unto us ;'" nor yet distributive, 128 because
" no man
by working well, in regard of himself, and in
regard of the state wherein he is, doth merit anything of

condignity, but is bound to God ratherby a greater obliga-


tion, because he hath received greater good things" from
And " is
concludeth, that God
129
him. thereupon at last
just rewarding, because by his just disposition he hath
in
ordained by the grace of acceptation to crown the lesser
merit with the greater reward, not by the justice of debt,
but by the grace and disposition of the divine good plea-
sure.
But the sentence of the Chancellor and the Theological
Faculty of Paris, in the year 1354, against one Guido, an
Austin Friar, that then defended " the merit of condignity,"
is not to be overpassed. For by their order this form of
recantation was prescribed unto him: "
130
I said against a
bachelor of the order of the friar's preachers in conference

with him. that a man doth


merit everlasting life of condig-

nity, that is to say, that in case it were not given, there


should injury be done unto him. I wrote likewise that

God should him


and approved it.
do injury,This I
revoke as FALSE, and BLASPHEMOUS."
HERETICAL, Yet
now the times are so changed, and men in them, that our

126
Non ex nostra justitia, sed ex Dei minus meritum majori praemio coronare,
gratia datur vita aeterna ; juxta illud ad non justitia debiti, sed gratia et dispo-
Rom. vi. Gratia Dei vita sterna. Ibid. sitions beneplaciti divini. Ibid.
127 Cum in operibus nostris bonis nihil 130 Dixi contra baccalarium Prsedicato-
Deo demus, pro quo per commutationem rum conferendo cum ipso, quod homo
debeatur nobis premium. Ibid.
meretur vitam aeternam de condigno; id
128
Cum nullus bene operando secun-
non daretur, ei fieret injuria.
si
est, quod
dum secundum statum aliquid de
se et
Et quod Deus faceret sibi inju-
scripsi
condigno mereatur, sed potius Deo ma- riam; ethane probavi. Istamrevocotan-
jori obligatione astringitur, quia majora quam f'alsam, haereticum, et blasphemam.
bona recepit. Ibid. Guid. Revocat. Errorum Fact. Paris, ann.
129
Ex quibus concluditur, quod Justus 1354, Tom. xiv. Bibliothec. Patr. edit.
Nit in remunerando; quia justa disposi- Colon, p. 347.
tione sua disposuit ex gratia acceptations
XII.] 01 MKK1TS. 503

new divines of Hlu-ims stick not to tell us, that it


" 131
is most
clear to all not blinded in pride and contention, that good
works be meritorious and the very cause of salvation, so
far that God should be unjust if he rendered not heaven
for the same.*" Where to the judgment of the indifferent
reader I referit, whether side in this case is more likely
to have been blinded in pride we who abase ourselves :

before God's footstool, and utterly disclaim all our own


merits ; or they who have so high a conceit of them, that

they dare in this presumptuous manner to challenge God


of injustice, if he should judge them to deserve a less reward
than heaven itself: and whether that sentence of our Saviour
Christ be not fulfilled in them, as well as in the proud and
blind Pharisees their predecessors l32
For judgment I am :

come into that they which see not might see,


this world,
and that they which see might be made blind. And so
leaving these blind leaders of the blind, who say they
I33
see,
by that means making their sin to remain, and say they
134
are rich and increased with goods, not knowing that
they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and
I proceed, and out of the fifteenth
naked, century or hundred
of years after Christ, produce other two witnesses of this
truth. The one is Paulus Burgensis, who, expounding
those words of David, Psalm xxxvi. 5, Thy mercy, O Lord,
is in heaven, or, reacheth unto the heavens, writeth thus:
" 135
No man to the common law can merit by
according
condignity the glory of heaven whence the Apostle saith, ;

in the eighth to the Romans, that the sufferings of this


time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory
which shall be revealed in us ; and so it is manifest that
in heaven most of all the mercy of God shineth forth
in The other is Thomas Walden, who, living
the blessed."
in England the same time that the other did in Spain, pro-
fesseth plainly his dislike of that saying, "
136
that a man

131
Rhem. Annotat. in Heb. vi. 10.
j
bis : et sic manifestum est, quod in coelo
132
Job. ix. 39. 133
Job. ix. 41. j
maxime relucet misericordia Dei in bea-
134
Rev. iii. 17. tis. Paul. Burgens. addit. ad Lyran. in
135
Gloriam coelestem nullus de con- Psalm, xxxv.
136
digno secundum legem communem me- Quod homo ex meritis est dignus
retur; unde apostolus ad Rom. viii. Non regno ccelorum, aut hac gratia vel ilia
sunt condignae passiones hujus seculi ad gloria ; quamvis quidam scholastici inve-
futuram gloriam, qua? revelabitur in no- nerunt ad hoc dicendum terminos de con-
504 ANSWER TO A JESUITS CHALLENGE. [CHAP,

by his merits is
worthy of the kingdom of heaven, or this

grace or that glory, howsoever certain schoolmen, that they


might so speak, had invented the terms of condignity and
congruity" But " 137 I repute him," saith he, " the sounder
divine, the more faithful Catholic, and more consonant with
the holy Scriptures, who doth simply deny such merit, and
with the qualification of the Apostle and of the Scriptures
confesseth, that simply no man meriteth the kingdom of
heaven, but by the grace of God or will of the giver."
" 138
As
the former saints until the late schoolmen, and
all

the universal Church hath written."


Out of which words of his you may further observe
both the time when, and the persons by whom, this inno-
vation was made in these latter days of the Church, namely,
that the late schoolmen were they that corrupted the ancient
doctrine of the Church, and to that end devised their new
terms of the merit of congruity and condignity. I say,
in these latter days; because if we look unto higher times,
Walden himself in that same place doth affirm, that it was
a branch of the 139
that according "
Pelagian heresy to hold,
to the measure of meritorious works God will reward a
man so meriting." Neither indeed can this proud genera-
tion of merit-mongers be derived from a more proper stock
than from the old either Pelagians or Catharists. For
as do now-a-days maintain that they do " 140 work
these

by their own free-will, and thereby deserve their salvation;"


so was this wont to be a part of Pelagius^s song: " No
141

man shall take away from me the power of free-will, lest


if God be my helper in my works the reward be not due
to me, but to him that did work in me." And to " 142 glory

139
digno et congruo. Waldens. Tom. in. Pelagiana est haeresis, quod Deus
de Sacramentalib. tit. i. cap. 7- secundum mensuram operum meritorio-
137
Reputo igitur saniorem theologum, rum praemiabit hominem sic merentem.
fideliorein Catholicum, et scripturis sanc- Ibid.
tis magis concordem, qui tale meritum 140 Rhemists' Annotat. in Rom. ix. 14.
141
simpliciter abnegat, et cum modificatione Mihi nullus auferre poterit liberi

apostoli et scripturarum concedit, quia arbitrii potestatem, ne si in operibus meis

simpliciter quis non meretur regnum cce- Deus adjutor exstiterit, non mihi debea-
lorum, sed ex gratia Dei aut voluntate tur merces, sed ei qui in me operatus.
largitoris. Ibid. Pelag. apud Hieronym. in Dialog, ad-
138
Sicut omnes sancti priores usque ad vers. Pelag. lib. i.

142
recentes scholasticps, et communis scripsit Gloriantes de suis meritis. Isidor,
ecclesia. Ibid. lib. viii. Origen. cap. 5, de Catharis.
XII.]
01-' MERITS. 505

of their merits," was a special property noted in the Catha-


rists or ancient Puritans ; who standing thus upon their
143
own purity, do thereby declare, as Cassiodorus noteth,
" that have no portion with the holy Church, which
1
"
1

they
that her sins are many.
" Ul while these
professeth Nay,
men call themselves Puritans," saith Epiphanius, " by this
very ground they prove themselves to be impure; for who-
soever pronounceth himself to be pure, doth therein abso-

lutely condemn himself to be impure." For, as St Jerome


in this case disputeth against the Pelagians, and so against
the Puritan and Pelagian Romanists, "
H5
then are we right-
eous when we confess ourselves to be sinners ; and our right-
eousness consisteth not in our own merits, but in God's
mercy :" with whose resolution against them we will now
conclude this point against their new offspring, that "
U6
the

righteous are saved, not by their own merit, but by God's


clemency."

And thus have I gone over all the particular Articles

propounded by Challenger, our performed therein and


more a great deal than he required at my hands. That
which he desired in the name of his fellows was, that we
would allege but " any one text of Scripture which con-
demneth any of the above-written points." He hath now
presented unto him not texts of Scripture only, but testi-
monies of the Fathers also, justifying our dissent from
them, not in one but in all those points wherein he was so
"
confident, that they of our side that had read the Fathers
could well testify" that all antiquity did in judgment con-
cur with the now Church of Rome. And if he look into
every one of them more nearly, he may perhaps find that

143
Etmemoria reconde, quod ecclesia KareKpive. Epiphan. Hseres. LIX. p. 216,
dicit pro parte membrorum, copiosa sua 217-
146
esse peccata; ut qui se praedicant esse Tune ergo justi sumus, quando nos
mundos, sicut Catharistae, intelligant se peccatores fatemur ; et justitia nostranon ex
portionem cum sancta ecclesia non habere. proprio merito, sed ex Dei consistit miseri-
Cass. in Psalm, xxiv. cordia. Hieron. Dialog.advers.Pelag.lib.i.
44 146
OUTOI eavTous <jj<rai/Te ca6a/3ois, Pro nihilo, inquit, salvos faciet eos ;
CCTT' au-TTjs TTJS tTro0e<reaj9 a'/caGd/oTous eav-
j
baud dubium quin justOS, qui non proprio
xous ydp o eavrov diro-
iras
a-TTo-reXoi/o-i.
\ merito, sed Dei salvantur dementia. Id.
<t>i]va<i KaQapoVidKaQapTOveavTovreXfiw: ibid. lib. ii.
06 ANSWER TO A JESUIT^S CHALLENGE. [cHAP. XII.

we are not such strangers to the original and first breedings


of these Romish errors as he did imagine. It now remaineth
on his part that he make good what he hath undertaken,
" for the confirmation of all the above-mentioned
namely, that
"
points of his religion" he produce both good and certain
grounds out of the sacred Scriptures," and the general
consent likewise of " the saints and Fathers of the primitive
Church." Wherein as I advise him to spare his pains in

labouring to prove those things which he seeth me before-


hand readily to have yielded unto ; so I wish him also
not to forget his own motion, made in the perclose of his

Challenge, that all


"may be done with Christian charity
and sincerity, to the glory of God, and instruction of them
that are astray."
CATALOGUE OF THE AUTHORS
HERE ALLEGED;

DISPOSED ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF THE TIMES


WHEREIN THEY ARE ACCOUNTED TO HAVE LIVED.

AN. DOM. AN. DOM.

40. NICODEMUS. The author 170. Tatianus.


of the counterfeit Gospel at- 180. Theophilus Antiochenus.
tributed unto him lived with- Irenaeus Lugdunensis.
in the first 600 years, being 190. Maximus; out of whom
cited by Gregorius Turonen- the Dialogues against the
sis. Marcionists, attributed to
43. Thaddaeus, vouched by Origen, are collected ; as ap-
Eusebius. peareth by the large frag-
60. Hermes. ment cited out of him by
70. Clemens I. Romanus E- Eusebius in the end of the
pisc. Counted the author of seventh book de Prcepara-
the Apostolical Constitutions. tione Evangelica.

Dionysius Areopagita. 200. Clemens Alexandrinus.


The books that bear his Tertullianus.
name seem to be written in 210. Cams.
the fourth or fifth age after 220. Hippolytus Martyr.
Christ. 230. Origenes.
106. Ignatius Antiochenus. Ammonius.
150. Justinus Martyr. Minucius Felix.
169. Smyrnensis Ecclesia, de 240. Novatianus.
Marty rio Poly carpi. 250. Gregorius Neocaesariensis.
508 A CATALOGUE OF

250. Cyprianus. 380. Caesarius.


260. Zeno Veronensis. Gregorius Nyssenus.
270. Victorinus Pictaviensis. Nectarius.
290. Pamphilus Martyr. Pacianus.
300. Arnobius. Prudentius.
Lactantius. Philastrius.
303. Concilium Sinuessanum, Evagrius Ponticus.
supposititium. Amphilochius. .

310. Concilium Eliberinum, seu 381. Concilium


Constantinopo-
Illiberitanum. litanum, Universale II.
325. Concilium Romanum sub 390. Hieronymus.
Silvestro, supposititium. Paula etEustochium,apud
Concilium Nicaenum, Uni- eund.
versale I. Epiphanius.
Macarius Hierosolymita- Ruffinus.
nus. Ccelius Sedulius.
330. Eusebius Caesariensis. Paulinus Mediolanensis.
Juvencus. 400. Jo. Chrysostomus.
Cujus
340. Eusebius Emesenus. epistolam ad Caesarium mo-
Athanasius Alexandrinus. nachum, quam in quaestio-
350. Eustathius Antiochenus. nem vocant Pontificii, cita-
Julius Firmicus Maternus. tam invenio in Collectaneis
Acacius Caesariensis. contra Severianos, quae ex
359. Conciliabula Arianorum, Fr. Turriani versione ha-
Nicaen. Constantinop. Sirmi- bentur in Tomo iv. Anti-
ens. et Ariminens. quae Lectionis Hen. Canisii,
360. Didymus. p. 238, et in fine libri Jo.
Hilarius Pictaviensis. Damasceni contra Acephalos,
Titus Bostrensis. ibid. p. 211, ubi postrema
364. Concilium Laodicenum. verba testimonii a nobis citati,
370. Macarius ./Egyptius. p. 59, Turrianus ita trans-

Cyrillus Hierosolymita- tulit : Sic etiam hie, divina


nus. natura in ipso insidente, unum
Asterius Amascae Episc. filium, unam personamutrum-
que constituit.
Optatus.
Ambrosius Mediolanensis Marcus Eremita.
Episc. Polychronius.
Basilius Caesariensis. Hesychius Presbyter. .

Gregorius Nazianzenus. 410. Palladius, Lausiacae his-


Aerius haereticus. toriae auctor.
TJIK AUTHORS UK RE ALLKCKD. 509

AN. DOM. I AN. DOM.

410. Pelagius haereticus. 494. Concilium Romanum I.

Augustinus. sub Gelasio.


Philo-Carpathius. 500. Paschasius Romanae Ec-
Synesius. clesiae Diaconus.
414. Theodorus Daphnopatus, Olympiodorus.
by Henr. Oraeus referred to Andrea Caesariensis.
this
year ; I know not by Stephanus Gobarus haere-
what warrant. ticus.

418. Concilium Africanum Car- 507. Laurentius Novariensis.


thagine habitum contra Pe- 510. Ennodius Ticinensis.
lagium. 520. Aurelius Cassiodorus.
420. Maximus Taurinensis. Eusebius Gallicanus.
424. Hilarius Arelatensis. Caesarius Arelatensis.
430. Jo. Cassianus. Fulgentius Ruspensis E-
Vincentius Lirinensis. pisc.
Auctor Operis imperfect! Johannes Maxentius.
in Matthaeum. 527- Ephraem Antiochenus.
Cyrillus Alexandrinus. Agapetus Diaconus.
Synodus Alexandrina con- 529. Concilium Arausican. II.
tra Nestorium. 530. Bonifacius II.
Theodoretus. Fulgentius Ferrandus.
Proclus Cyzicenus. Dionysius Exiguus.
431. Concilium Ephesinum, U- Benedictus Monachus.
niversale III. Procopius Gazaeus.
440. Prosper Aquitanicus. 540. Arator.
Socrates historicus. 550. Primasius Apameae Epis-
Sozomenus. copus (Catena Graeca in
Eucherius Lugdunensis. Job. MS. in Biblioth. D.
Petrus Chrysologus. Lindselli.)
450. Leo I. 553. Concilium Constantinopo-
451. Concilium Chalcedonense, litanum, Universale V.
Universale IV. 560. Andreas Hierosolymitanus,
460. Basilius Seleuciensis. Cretensis Archiepisc.
Victor Antiochenus. Dracontius.
Salvianus Massiliensis. 570. Cresconius.
475. Faustus Regensis, seu 580. Venantius Fortunatus.
Reiensis. Johannes Climacus.
476. Gelasius Cyzicenus. 589. Concilium Toletanum III.
490. Gennadius Massiliensis. 600. Gregorius I.
Gelasius Papa I. Johan. Nestenta.
510 A CATALOGUE OF

600. Agapius Manichseus. 8 16. Concilium Aquisgranense


6lO. Eustratius
Constantinopo- sub Ludovico Pio.
litanus. 824. Synodus Parisiensis, de
630. Isidorus Hispalensis. Imaginibus.
633. Concilium Toletanum IV. 830. Christianus Druthmarus.
640. Maximus Monachus. 840. Amalarius Lugdunensis.
Jonas. Paschasius Radbertus.
Anastasius Sinaita. Rabanus Maurus.
660. Eligius Noviomensis. Haymo Halberstattensis.
680. Julianus Toletanus. Agobardus Lugd. Episc.
690. Theodorus Cantuariensis Walafridus Strabus.
Archiepisc. 842. Concilium Aquisgranense
700. Liber Canonum Ecclesise sub Pipino.
Anglo- Saxonicae, MS. in 850. Synodus Carisiaca.
Bibliotheca Cottoniana. Johannes Erigena Scotus.
Nico. EcclesiaLugdunensis con-
710. Isidorus Mercator. tra eundem.
720. Beda. Grimoldus.
Germanus Constantinop. Hincmarus Rhemensis.
730. Bonifacius 860. Photius.
Moguntinus.
740. Gregorius III. Johannes Diaconus.
Jo. Damascenus. 870. Egolismensis Monachus,
Antonius auctor Melissse. qui Caroli Magni vitam de-
745. Synodus Romana sub Za- scripsit.
charia. Otfridus Wissenburgen-
754. Constantinopolitanum Con- sis.

cilium contra Imagines. 876. Ratrannus, vulg. Bertra-


760. Ambrosius Ansbertus. mus.
773. Hadrianus I. 890. Leo Imperator.
780. Johannes Hierosolymita- Michael Syncellus.
nus. Ado Viennensis.
785. Etherius et Beatus. Nicetas Serronius.
787- Concilium Nicaenum II. Gregorius Cerameus.
Epiphanius Diaconus. 920. Regino Prumiensis.
790. Elias Cretensis. 950. Smaragdus.
Alcuinus. 975. JElfrick.
794. Concilium Francofurtense. 1000. Fulbertus Carnotensis.
800. Carolus Magnus. 1020. Burchardus.
813. Concilium Arelatense IV. 1030. Simeon Metaphrastes.
Concilium Cabilonense II. 1050. Petrus Damiani.
THE AUTHORS HKRK ALL F.(. K 1). 511

AN. DOM. AN. DOM.

1050. CEcumenius. 1160. Arnaldus Carnotensis, Ab-

Berengarius. bas Bonaevallis. Opus de Car-


1058. Hermannus Contractus. dinalibusChristi
operibus,Cy-
1060. Radulphus Ardens. priano perperam adscriptum,
Lanfrancus Cantuariensis huic auctori in exemplaribus

Archiepisc. MSS. tribuitur quorum duo


:

Algerus. Oxonii ipsi vidimus ; in Bod-


1070. Osbernus. leiana Bibliotheca unum, in

Theophylactus. Collegii Omnium Animarum


1080. Euthymius Zigabenus. Biblioth. alterum.
Anselmus Cantuariensis Petrus Blesensis.
Archiepisc. Johannes Tzetzes.
1090. Waltramus Naumbergen- 1170. Hugo Etherianus.
sis. Gratianus.
1100. Sigebertus Gemblacensis. 1180. Theodorus Balsamon.
Conradus Bruwilerensis. Simeon Dunelmensis.
ZachariasChrysopolitanus. 1 200. Cyrus Theodorus Prodro-
Ivo Carnotensis. mus.
1110. Anselmus Laudunensis. Innocentius III.
1112. Berengosius Abbas. 1204. Rogerus Hoveden.
1120. Eadmerus. 1206. Guillermus Altissiodoren-
Michael Glycas. sis.

Johannes Zonaras. 1210. Nicetas Choniates.

Rupertus Tuitiensis. 1215. Concilium Lateranense.


1130. Hugo de S. Victore. 1220. Jacobus de Vitriaco.
Gulielmus Malmesburien- 1230. Gulielmus Alvernus, Pa-
sis. risiensis Episc.
Innocentius II. 1235. Rogerus de Wendover.
Bernardus Clarrevallen- 1240. Alexander de Hales.
sis. Albertus Magnus.
Auctor Vitae Godefridi 1250. Matthaeus Parisiensis.
ComitisCappenbergensis. Hugo Cardinalis.
1140. Petrus Lombardus. Bernardus Glossator De-
Gilbertus Porretanus. cretalium.
1146. Otto Frisingensis. 1252. Dominicani contra Grae-
1 1 50. Petru s Cluniacensis. cos.
Constantinus Harmeno- 1260. Thomas Aquinas.
pulus. Bonaventura.
Bernardus Morlanensis. 1270. Jo. Semeca.
Leo Thuscus. 1280. Richardus de Media villa.
512 A CATALOGUE OF

1280. JCgidius Romanus, a Tri- 1386. Gregorius Ariminensis.


themio auctor fuisse dicitur 1390. Michael Agrianus de Bo-
Compendii Theologicae verita- nonia.

quod p. 165 Albert! Magni


tis, Johannes Scharpe.
nomine citavimus. Idem opus 1400. Petrus de Alliaco, Came-
Bonaventurse nomine legitur racensis.
in Appendice septimi tomi Johannes Herolt, auctor
operum ejus RomaB edit. Sermonum Discipuli.
1283. Johan. Peckham Cantuar. Jacobus de Everbaco.
Archiepisc. 1410. Johannes Gerson.
1300. Johannes Duns, Scotus. 1414. Constantiense Concilium.

Georgius Pachymeres. 1415. Johannes Capreolus.


Athanasius Constantino- 1420. Theodoricus de Niem.
politanus. 1430. Paulus Burgensis.
Nicolaus Cabasilas. Alphonsus Tostatus Abu-
Matthaeus Quaestor. lensis Episcopus.
1310. Hugo de Prato. Thomas Walden.
Gulielmus Nangiacus. Bernardinus Senensis.
1320. Gulielmus Ockam. 1438. Graecorum Apologia ad
Durandus de S. Porciano. Basiliense Concilium de igne
Petrus Paludanus. Purgatorio.
Theodorus Metochita. Concilium Ferrariense.
Nicolaus Lyranus. 143p. Concilium Florentinum.
1327. Andronicus. Eugenii I V.BullaUnionis.
1330. Alvarus Pelagius. 1440. Nicolaus Tudeschius, Ab-
1340. Thomas Bradwardin. bas Panormitanus.

Nicephorus Gregoras. Marcus Eugenicus, Ephe-


1348. Johannes Andreas, auc- sius.

tor Glossarum in VI. Decre- 1450. Gennadius Scholarius.


talium. 1460. Johannes de Turre-Cre-
1350. Richardus Armachanus. mata.
Robertus Holcot. Mneas Sylvius.
Thomas de Argentina. Dionysius Carthusianus.
1354. Guido Augustinianus. Alan us de Rupe.
Germanus, Patriarcha 1479. Congregatio Compluten-
sis.
Constantinop.
1370. Matthaeus Westmonaste- Michael ab Insulis.
nensis. 1480. Bernardinus de Busti.
Henricus de Iota vel Johannes Capgravius.
Huecta. Gabriel Biel.
THE AUTHORS HERE ALLEGED. 513

AN. DOM.

1490. Marsilius de Inghen. Novum AnthologiumGraece edi-


Jacobus Perez de Valen- tum Romae anno 1598.
tia. Basilii Anaphora Syriaca, ab
1500. Johannes Major. Andr. Masio conversa.
Raphael Volaterranus. Missa Angamallensis Christia-
Johannes de Selva. norum S. Thomae, ex Syriaco
conversa, in Itinerario Alexii
Menesii.
Armenorum Liturgia, ab An-
Erasmus, Adrian the Sixth, Car-
drea Lubelczyck Latine con-
dinal Cajetan, and the other
versa.
writers of this last age, I pass
over, as also the Hebrews and Liturgiae ^Egyptiacae
Heathen writers cited in the Basilii,

question of the Descent into Gregorii Nazianzeni,


Hell; because the designing Cyrilli Alexandrini,
a Victorino Scialach ex Arabico
of the precise time wherein
conversae.
they lived serveth to little use.
Missa Ambrosiana.
Only I think it not amiss to
Gregorii I.
Antiphonarium et
add here a list of the Liturgies
and ritual books which I have Sacramentarium.
had occasion to make use of. Officium Muzarabum in Hispa-
nia.

Liturgise Graecae, nomen praefe- Missale Gothicum, tomo vi.


rentes Bibliothec. Patr. edit. Paris,
Jacobi. anno 1589, et xv. edit. Colon,
Petri. anno 1622.
Marci. Ordo Romanus antiquus.
dementis. Missa Latina antiqua, edit. Ar-
gentinae anno 1557.
Basilii.

Chrysostomi. Baptizatorum et Confitentium


Gregorii Romani, a Codino Ceremoniae antiquae, unacum
Grsece reddita. praefationibus vetustis, edit.
Liturgia Ecclesiae Constantino- Colon, anno 1530.
politanae, Latine a Leone Alcuini Sacramentorum liber, et
Thusco edita. Officium per ferias.
Graecorum Grimoldi Sacramentorum liber.
Euchologium. Preces Ecclesiasticae veteres, a
Menaea. Georgio Cassandro editae.
Octoechum Anastasimum. Pontificiale Romanum vetus,
Pentecostarium. edit. Venet. anno 1572, et

KK
514 A CATALOGUE OF THE AUTHORS HERE ALLEGED.

reformatum dementis VIII. Sacra institutio Baptizandi juxta


jussu, Rotnae edit, anno 1595. Ritum S. Romanae Ecclesiae,
Missale Romanum vetus, edit. ex decretoConcilii Tridentini
Paris,anno 1529, et jussu Pii restitut. Paris. 1575.
V. et Clemen tis VIII. refor- Horse B. Mariae Virginis, se-
matum, edit. Romaeannol 604. cundum Consuetudinem Ro-
Breviarium Romanum. manae Curiae, Graece ab Aldo
Sacerdotale Romanum, edit. editae.

Venet. anno 1585. Breviarium secundum usum Ec-


Ceremonial^ Romanum, edit. clesiae Sarum.

Colon, anno 1574. Preces Syrorum, ab Alb. Wid-


Ordo Baptizandi, cum modo vi- manstadio edit. Viennae, anno
sitandi infirmos. Venet. 1575. 1555.
DISCOURSE
OF

THE RELIGION
ANCIENTLY PROFESSED BY

THE IRISH AND BRITISH.

KK2
TO

MY VERY MUCH HONOURED FRIEND

SIR CHRISTOPHER SIBTHORP, KNIGHT,


ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S JUSTICES
OF HIS COURT OF CHIEF PLACE IN IRELAND.

WORTHY SIR,

I CONFESS
I somewhat incline to be of
your mind,
that unto the authorities drawn out of Scriptures and
if

Fathers, which are common to us with others, a true

discovery were added of that religion which anciently was

professed in this kingdom, it might prove a special motive


to induce my poor countrymen to consider a little better
of the old and true way from whence they have hitherto
been misled. Yet, on the one side, that saying in the

Gospel runneth much in my mind,


l
lf they hear not
Moses and the
prophets, they neither
persuaded will be

though one rose from the dead; and on the other, that
2
heavy judgment mentioned by the Apostle, Because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,
God shall them strong delusion, that they should
send
believe lies. The woeful experience whereof we may see
daily before our eyes in this poor nation, where such as
are slow of heart to believe the saving truth of God,
deliveredby the Prophets and Apostles, do with all greedi-
ness embrace, and with a most strange kind of credulity

entertain, those lying legends wherewith their monks and


friars in these latter days have polluted the religion and
lives of our ancient saints.

2
1
Luke xvi. 31. 2 Thess. ii. 10, 11.
518 THE EPISTLE.

I do not deny but that in this


country, as well as in
others, corruptions did creep in by little and little, before
the devil was let loose to procure that seduction which

prevailed so generally in these last times: but as far as


I can collect by such records of the former ages as have
come unto my hands, either manuscript or printed, the

religion by the ancient bishops, priests, monks,


professed
and other Christians in this land, was for substance the

very same with that which now by public authority


is

maintained therein, against the foreign doctrine brought in

thither in later times by the Bishop of Rome's followers.

I speak of the more substantial points of doctrine that are

in controversy betwixt the Church of Rome and us at this

day, by which only we must judge whether of both sides


hath departed from the religion of our ancestors; not of
matters of inferior note, much less of ceremonies, and such
other things as appertain to the discipline rather than to
the doctrine of the Church.
And whereas it is known unto the learned that the
name of Scoti in those elder times, whereof we treat, was
common to the greater and the lesser
inhabitants of the

Scotland, (for so heretofore they have been distinguished),


that is to say, of Ireland and the famous colony deduced
from thence into Albania I will not follow the example
;

of those that have of late laboured to make dissension


betwixt the daughter and the mother, but account of them
both as of the same people:

Tros Rutulusve fuat, nullo discrimine habebo.

The religion, doubtless, received by both was the selfsame,


and differed little or nothing from that which was main-
tained by their neighbours the Britons, as by comparing the
evidences that remain, both of the one nation and of the
other, in the ensuing discourse more fully shall appear.
THE CHIEF HEADS

TREATED OF IN THIS DISCOURSE

ARE THESE.

CHAPTER I.
PAGB
OF the Holy Scriptures 521

CHAPTER II.

Of Predestination, Grace, Free-will, Works, Justification and


Sanctification 530

CHAPTER III.

Of Purgatory and Prayer for the Dead 538

CHAPTER IV.

Of the Worship of God, the Public Form of Liturgy, the Sacri-


fice and Sacrament of the Lord's Supper 547

CHAPTER V.
Of Chrism, Sacramental Confession, Penance, Absolution, Mar-
riage, Divorces, and Single Life in the Clergy 558

CHAPTER VI.
Of the Discipline of our Ancient Monks, and Abstinence from
Meats 567

CHAPTER VII.

Of the Church and various State thereof, especially in the Days


of Antichrist ; of Miracles also, and of the Head of the
Church 577
520 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII.
PAGE
Of the Pope's Spiritual Jurisdiction, and how little footing it

had gotten at first within these parts 585

CHAPTER IX.
Of the Controversy which the Britons, Picts, and Irish main-
tained against the Church of Rome, touching the Celebra-
tion of Easter 599

CHAPTER X.
Of the height that the Opposition betwixt the Roman party
and that of the British and the Scottish grew unto, and
the Abatement thereof in time ; and how the Doctors of
the Scottish and Irish side have been ever accounted most
eminent Men in the Catholic Church, notwithstanding
their disunion from the Bishop of Rome 610

CHAPTER XI.
Of the temporal Power which the Pope's followers would
directly entitle him unto over the Kingdom of Ireland;
together with the indirect power which he challengeth in
absolving Subjects from the obedience which they owe
to their temporal Governors 620
OF

THE RELIGION
PROFESSED BY THE

ANCIENT IRISH.

CHAPTER I.

OF HE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

Two excellent rules doth St Paul prescribe unto Chris-


tians for their direction in the ways of God; the one, that
be not unwise, but understanding what the will of
l

they
God is ; the other, that they 2 be not more wise than be-
hoveth to be wise, but be wise unto sobriety. And that
we might know the limits within which this wisdom and
sobriety be bounded, he elsewhere declareth, that
should
not to be more wise than is fitting is 3 not to be wise
above that which is written. Hereupon Sedulius, one of
the most ancient writers that remaineth of this country
birth, delivereth this for the meaning of the former rule:
" 4 Search the in which the will of God is contained ;"
law,
and this for the latter " 5 He would be more wise"
:

than " who searcheth those


meet, is
things that the law
doth not speak of." Unto whom we will adjoin Claudius,
another famous divine, counted one of the founders of the
University of Paris, who for the illustration of the former
affirmeth that men " 6
therefore err, because they know not

1 6
Ephes. v. 17. Propterea errant, quia scripturas ne-
2
Rom. xii. 3.
Mrj vireptfrpovelv Trap' sciunt ; et quia scripturas ignorant, conse-
o eel (ppovelu, aXXct <ppovelv irpo? TO quenter nesciunt virtutem Dei, hoc est,
rrra<ppoveil>. Christum, qui est Dei virtus et Dei sapi-
:J
1 Cor. iv. fi. Mr; \nrf-p o yeypairrat entia. Claud, in Matth. lib. iii. Habe-
(ppovelv. tur MS. Romae in Bibliotheca Valli-
4
Scrutamini legem, in qua voluntas ccllana, Cantabrigian in Bibliothec.
et
ejus continetur. Sedul. in Ephes. v. Colleg. Benedict, et Aulac Pembrochi-
s
Plus vult sapere, qui ilia scrutatur anae.
qua lex non dicit. Id. in Rom. xii.
522 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

the Scriptures; and because they are ignorant of the Scrip-


tures, they consequently know not Christ, who is the power
of God, and the wisdom of God ;" and for the clearing of
the bringeth in that known Canon of St Jerome
latter, :

" 7
This, because it hath not authority from the Scriptures,
is with the same facility contemned wherewith it is avowed."
Neither was the practice of our ancestors herein different
from their judgment. For as Bede, touching the latter,
recordeth of the successors of Colum-kill, the great saint
of our country, that they "
8
observed only those works of
piety and chastity which they could learn in the prophetical,
evangelical, and apostolical writings;" so, for the former,
he especially noteth of one of the principal of them, to wit,
" 9 all such as went in his
Bishop Aidan, that company,
whether they were of the clergy or of the laity, were tied
to exercise themselves either in
the reading of Scriptures
or in the learning of Psalms." And long before their
time it was the observation which St Chrysostom made of
both these islands, that " 10
although thou didst go unto
the ocean and those British although thou didst sail Isles,
to the Euxine Sea, although thou didst go unto the southern

quarters, thou shouldst hear ALL men everywhere discoursing


matters out of the SCRIPTURE, with another voice indeed,
but not with another faith, and with a different tongue,
but with an according judgment." Which is in effect the
same with that which venerable Bede pronounceth of the
island of Britain in his own days, that " u in the language
of five nations it did search and confess one and the same

7 non habet
Hoc, quia de scripturis ets Toi/Eueii/oi> ir\ev<rris TTOVTOV, /COI/TT/OOS

auctoritatem, eadem facilitate contemni- TO. VOTHZ direXdys pepn' irdvrtnv dicoverri

tur qua probatur. Id. ibid. Trawrayov diro T^S yjoa^jjs </H\OOTO-
TO.
8
Tantum ea quae in propheticis, evan- tfrovuTtov, ptavy fJLev ere/oa, 'Trio-Tel 3e ofy

gelicis, et apostolicis literis discere pote- Tpa, KOI yXuartry fiev diatfroptp) oiavoia
rant, pietatis et castitatis opera diligenter &e Chrysost. in Serm. de Uti-
<rvfj.<f>(ovu>.

observantes. Bed. Histor. Ecclesiast. litate Lectionis Scripturae, Tom. vin.


lib. iii. cap. 4. edit. Savil. p. 111.
11
Quinque gentium linguis unam can*
9
In tantum autem vita illius a nostri
temporis segnitia distabat, ut omnes qui demque summae veritatis et verae sublimi-
cum eo incedebant, sive adtonsi, sive laici, tatis scientiam scrutatur et confitetur;
meditari deberent, id est, aut legendis Anglorum Britonum, Scotorum,
videlicet,
scripturis, aut Psalmis discendis operam Pictorum, et Latinorum ; quae meditatione
dare. Id. ibid., cap. 5. scripturarum ceteris omnibus est facta
10
Kai/ eis Tov taKeavov a-rreXGjjs, KO.V communis. Bed. Histor. Ecclesiast. lib. i.

TT/OOS ras B/oeroi/j/i/cos i/j<rovs CKCI'I/CCS, KCCV cap. 1.


OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 523

knowledge of the highest truth, and of the true sublimity,


to wit, of the English, the Britons, the Scots, the Picts,
and the Latins." Which "
although he affirmeth
last
by
the meditation of the Scriptures to have become common
the community of that one among the
to all the rest," yet
learned did not take away the property of the other four

among the vulgar; but that such as understood not the


Latin in their own mother tongue have those
might yet
wherein " search the
Scriptures, they might knowledge of
the highest truth, and of the true sublimity."" Even as at
this day in the reformed churches the same Latin tongue
is common to all the learned in the meditation and expo-
sition of the Scriptures, and yet the common people, for
all that, do in their own vulgar tongues
12
search the
Scriptures, them they think to have eternal
because in
life. For as by us now, so by our forefathers then, the
" 13 continual meditation of the was held to
1 ''

Scriptures
and " to the as we
give special vigour vegetation soul,"
read in the book attributed unto St Patrick, of the Abuses
of the World; and the holy documents delivered therein
were esteemed by Christians as their chief riches, according
to that of Columbanus,
14
Sint tibi divitise divinse dogmata legis.

In which heavenly riches our ancient Scottish and Irish did


thrive so well, that many worthy
personages in foreign
parts were content to undergo a voluntary exile from their
own country, that they might more freely traffic here for
so excellent a commodity. And by this means Alfred,
King of Northumberland, purchased the reputation of "
15
a
man most learned in the Scriptures."

Scottorum qui turn versatus incola terris,


Coslestem intento spirabat corde sophiam.
Nam patrisB fines et dulcia liquerat arva,
Sedulus ut Domini mysteria disceret exul;

12 14
John v. 39. Columban. in Monasticis, et in
13
Epi-
Bonis semper moribus delectatur et stola ad Hunaldum.
consentit, et assiduis scripturarum medi- 15
Successit Ecgfrido in
tationibus et animam regnum Alt-
eloquiis vegetat. vir in scripturis doctissimus.
de Abusionibus Seculi, cap.
frit, Bed,
Patric. 5,
Hist. lib. iv. cap. 26.
dc Pudicitia.
524 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAl'.

as Bede writeth of him in his poem of the life of our coun-


tryman St Cuthbert.
So when we read in the same Bede of 16
Furseus, and
in another ancient author of 17
Kilianus, that " from the
time of their very childhood" they had a care to learn
the holy Scriptures; it may easily be collected, that in
those days it was not thought a thing unfit that even
children should give themselves unto the study of the Bible.
Wherein how greatly some of them did profit in those tender
years, may appear by that which Boniface, the first Arch-
bishop of Mentz, relateth of Livinus, who was trained up
18
in his youth by Benignus in the singing of David's Psalms,
and the reading of the holy Gospels, and other divine
exercises; Jonas of Columbanus, in whose " 19 breast
and
the treasures of the holy Scriptures were so laid up, that
within the compass of his youthful years he set forth an

elegant exposition of the book of the Psalms :" by whose


industry likewise afterward the study of God's word was so
propagated, that in the monasteries which were founded
" 20
according to his rule" beyond the seas, not the men
only, but the religious women also, did carefully attend
the same, that through patience and comfort of the Scrip-
tures they might have hope. See for this the practice of
the Virgin 21 Bitihildis lying upon her death-bed, reported

by the same Jonas, or whosoever else was the author of


the Life of Burgundofora.
As for the edition of the Scriptures used in these parts
at those times, the Latin translation was so received into
common use among the learned, that the principal authority

19
16
Ab ipso tempore pueritiae suae curam Tantum in ejus pectore divinarum
non modicam lectionibus sacris, simul et thesauri scripturarum conditi tenebantur,
monasticis exhibebat disciplinis. Bed. ut intra adolescentiae aetatem detentus,
Hist lib. iii. cap. 19. Ab infantia sacris Psalmorum librum elimato sermone ex-
monasticis disciplinis eruditus.
literis et poneret. Jonas in Vita Columbani,
Johannes de Tinmouth (et ex eo Jo. cap. 2.
20
Capgrar.) in Vita Fursei. B. Burgundofora monasterium quod
17 A
puerili state magnum habet stu- Fuoriacas appellatur, &c. secundum regu-
dium sacras discere literas. Tom. iv. lam S. Columbani instituit. Id. in Vita
Antiqu. Lect. Henr. Canis. p. 642. Burgundof.
18
Davidicis Psalmorum melodiis, et
21
Cum jam in extremis posita posceret
sanctorum evangeliorum mellifluis lec- per successiones noctium lumen coram se
tionibus atque ceteris divinis exercita- accendi, et sacras lectionis praeconia ante
tionibus. Bonifac. in Vita Livini. se legi, &c. Id. ibid.
I.]
OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 525

was still reserved to the original fountains. Therefore doth


Sedulius in the Old Testament commend unto us " ^the
Hebrew verity," for so with St Jerome doth he style it ;
and in the New correct
oftentimes the vulgar Latin, ac-

cording to the truth of the Greek copies. For example,


in 1 Cor. vii. 34, he readeth as we do, There is difference
between a wife and a virgin ; and not as the Rhemists
have translated it out of the Latin. Rom. xii. 19, he
readeth, Non vosmetipsos vindicantes, not avenging your-
selves^ where the vulgar Latin hath corruptly, Non
vosmetipsos defendentes, not defending yourselves. Rom.
iii. where the Rhemists translate according to the Latin,
4,
God is true, he sheweth that in the Greek copies it is
found, Let God be true, or, Let God be made true. Rom.
xv. 17, he noteth that the Latin books have put glory for

gloriation. Galat. i. 16, where the Rhemists have, according


to the Latin, / condescended not to Jlesh and blood, he saith,
that in Graeco melius habet, (for so must his word be here
corrected out of St Jerome, whom he followeth), the Greek
hath it better, / conferred not. Rom. viii. 3, where the
Rhemists say of God, according to the Latin translation,
that of sin he damned
sin in the Jlesh, Sedulius affirmeth,
that verius habetur Grcecos, it is more truly expressed
apud
in the Greek books, that for sin he damned sin in the
flesh.
Lastly, where the Rhemists translate after their Latin copy,
Galat. A little leaven corrupteth the whole paste, he
v. 9,

saith should be leaveneth, as we have it, and 23 not cor-


it

rupteth, as it is ill read in the Latin books. So where


they translate by the same authority, Galat. vi. 1, Instruct
such an one in the spirit of lenity, 24 Claudius, following
St Jerome, affirmeth that it is better in the Greek, Restore
or perfect him. And where they make St Peter say, Matt,
25
xvi. 22, Lord, be it
far from thee, he noteth that it is
better in the Greek, Lord, favour thyself.
In the Old Testament I observe that our writers do
more usually follow the translation taken out of the Sep-
tuagint than the vulgar Latin, which is now received in
22
Hebraicam veritatem. Sedul. in Gal. ; Graeco, Perficiat in spiritu lenitatis.
iii. et Hebr. vii. I
Claud, in Gal. vi.
23 25
Non, ut .male in Latinis codicibus, I Absit a te, Domine, vel, ut melius
corrumpit. Sedul. in Gal. v. habetur in Graeco, Propitius esto tibi,
-4
Instruat, sive, ut melius habetur in i Domine. Id. lib. ii. Comment, in Matt.
526 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

the Church of Rome. So, for example, where the vulgar


a6
Latin hath, Isaiah xxxii. 4, The tongue of the stammerers
(or mafflers, as the Douay translation would have it En-
glished,) shall speak readily and plainly, in the Confession
of St Patrick 27 we find it laid down more to the agreeably
28
Greek lection, The stammering tongues shall swiftly learn
tospeak peace. And in his Epistle to Coroticus or Cereticus,
*9
Malach. iv. 2, m You shall dance as calves loosed out
of
bands, where our common Latin hath, You shall leap as
calves of the herd. And Job xx. 15, 16, ^The riches which
he shall gather unjustly shall be vomited out of his belly ,

the angel of death draweth him : he shall be mulcted with


the wrath of dragons ; the tongue of the serpent shall
kill him: where the vulgar Latin readeth, The riches
which he hath devoured he shall vomit out, and God shall
draw them forth out of his belly ; he shall suck the head
of asps, and the viper's tongue shall kill him. The same
course is likewise observed by Sedulius in his citations.
But Gildas the Briton, in some books, as Deuteronomy,
Isaiah, and Jeremiah, for example, useth to follow the

vulgar Latin translated out of the Hebrew; in others, as


the books of Chronicles, Job, Proverbs, Ezekiel, and the
small Prophets, the elder Latin translated out of the Greek ;
as also long after him his countryman ^Nennius, in reckon-

ing the years of the age of the world, followeth the Seventy ;
and Asser allegeth the text, Gen. iv. 7 5 ^ If thou offer aright ,
and dost not divide aright, thou sinnest, according to the
35
Greek reading; whereas the vulgar Latin hath ^
it, If thou

26
Lingua balborum velociter loquetur av-rov ayyeXos' QVJJLOV <5e

et plane. BtjXao-eiev, dveXoi e aiiTdv yXStatra.


27
Linguae balbutientes velociter dis- 00660S.
32
cent loqui pacem. Divitias quas devoravit evomet, et
28 Ai de ventre illius extrahet eas Deus. Caput
yXwo-o-ai ai ^eXXiou(rai Tcrxy
/xa6tj'<roi/Tat XaXetz/ ei/otji/ijy. aspidum suget, et occidet eum lingua
29 Exultabitis sicut vituli ex vinculis viperae.
33
resoluti. Graec. Sa/oTTJ<reTe cos fjio<r)(apia Nenn. Histor. Briton, cap. i.
34
ec dvetfteva.
f>e<rfJL(Ji>v
Si recte offeras, recte autem non di-

vidas, peccas. Asser Menevens. de Gestis


30 Salietis sicut vituli de armento.

31
Divitiae, quas congregabit injuste, TElfredi R.
35
evomentur de ventre ejus; trahet ilium Ou/c edv o/)0ois Tr/ootrei/eyfq;?, opQws
angelus mortis. Ira draconum mulcta- de fir} 5teX?;s, fj'/u.a/oTes ;

36
Nonne si bene egeris, recipies ? sin
bitur; interficiet ilium lingua colubri.
Graec. HAou-ros a5icos autem male, statim in foribus peccatum
ouaav aderit ?
I.]
OF THE HOLY SC 111 1'Tl R l->.
7

527

do well, shalt thou not receive again ? but if thou doest ill,
shall not thy sin forthwith be present at the door ?
Of the Psalter, there are extant four or five Latin
translations out of the Greek, namely, the old Italian, the
Gallican, Roman, the Gothic, and that of Milan, and
the
one out of the Hebrew, composed by St Jerome, which,
though it be now excluded out of the body of the Bible,
and the Gallican admitted in the room thereof, yet in some
37
manuscript copies it still retaineth its ancient place; three
whereof I have seen myself in Cambridge, one in Trinity,
another in Bene^t, and the third in Jesus College library,
where this translation out of the Hebrew, and not the vulgar
out of the Greek, is inserted into the context of the Bible.
In the citations of Gildas, and the Confession of Saint
Patrick, I observe that the Roman Psalter is followed rather
than the Gallican in the quotations of Sedulius, on the
;

other side, the Gallican rather than the Roman. Claudius,


speaking of a text in the 118th (or, as he accounteth it,
the 117th) x Psalm, saith that where the seventy
interpreters
did translate it, O Lord, save me, it was written in the
" Anna Adonai
Hebrew, Qsanna ; which our interpreter
Jerome," saith he,
" more
diligently explaining," translated
" / beseech thee,
thus :
Lord, save, I beseech thee"
Before this translation of St Jerome M I have seen an
epigram prefixed by Ricemarch the Briton, who by Caradoc
of Lhancarpan 40 is commended for " the godliest, wisest,
and greatest clerk that had been in Wales many years
before" his time, his Father " Sulgen, Bishop of St David's,"
" who had
only excepted, brought him up, and a great
number of learned disciples." He having in this epigram

37 Gothicis
nostrorum libris antiquissi- mus diligentius elucidans ita transtulit,
mis adjuti sumus, in quibus magis sincera Obsecro, Domine, salva obsecro. Claud.
sacrorum librorum versio ab Hieronymo Scot, in Matt. lib. iii.
39
facta conservator, argumento prater alia, MS. in Bibliotheca eruditissinri an-

ejus etiam in Psalmos interpretationem tistitisD. Gulielmi Bedelli, Kilmorensis


contineri, pro qua nostri codices
iis libris et Ardachadensis apud nos Episcopi.
|

40
Septuagintainterpretum versionem in illos Caradoc. in Chronico Cambria, circa
mutarunt. Jo. Marian. Praefat. Scholior. annum 1099, ad quern in aliis etiam Anna-
in Biblia, ad Card. Bellarmin. libus Britannicis MSS. annotatnm reperi :

38
In Psalmo cxvii. ubi LXX. interpre- Sub hujus anni ambitum morti succumbit
j

tes transtulerunt, O Domine, salvum me I


Richmarch cognomine Sapiens, filius Sul-
/ac, in Hebraeo scriptum est, Anna Adonai \

geni Episcopi, cum jam annum 43 statis


Osanna, quod interpres noster Hierony- !

ageret.
528 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

said of those who translated the Psalter out of Greek, that


" darken the Hebrew 1'
they did rays with their Latin cloud,
addeth of St Jerome, that being "
replenished with the
Hebrew fountain, he did more clearly and briefly discover
the truth," as drawing it out of the " first vessel" imme-
" second-hand :" to this
diately, and not taking it at the
purpose thus expresseth he himself:

Ebrseis nablam custodit litera signis:


Pro captu quam quisque suo sermone Latino
Edidit, innumeros lingua variante libellos ;

Ebrseumque jubar suffuscat nube Latina.


Nam tepefacta ferum dant tertia labra saporem.
Sed sacer Hieronymus, Ebrseo fonte repletus,
Lucidius nudat verum, breviusque ministrat :

Namque secunda creat, nam tertia vascula vitat.

Now for those books annexed to the Old Testament,


which St Jerome calleth apocryphal, others ecclesiastical,
true it is that in our Irish and British writers some of
them are alleged as parcels of Scripture and prophetical
writings ; those especially that commonly bare the name of
Solomon. But so also isthe fourth book of Esdras cited

by Gildas, in the name of " 41 blessed Esdras the prophet,""


which yet our Romanists will not admit to be canonical ;
neither do our writers mention any of the rest with more
titlesof respect than we find given unto them by others of
the ancient Fathers, who yet in express terms do exclude
them out of the number of those books which properly are
to be esteemed canonical. So that from hence no sufficient

proof can be taken that our ancestors did herein depart


from the tradition of the elder Church, 42 delivered by St
Jerome and explained by Brito (a Briton,
in his Prologues,
it seemeth, well as by appellation,) in his
by nation as
Commentaries upon the same which being heretofore joined
;

with the ordinary gloss upon the Bible, have of late proved
so distasteful unto our popish divines, that in their new
editions, printed at Lyons anno 1590, and at Venice after-
ward, they have quite crossed them out of their books.

41 42
Quid praeterea beatus Esdras Pro- Vide Richard. Annachanum, de
pheta ille, bibliotheca legis, minatus sit, Quaestionib. Armeniorum, lib. xviii.
attendite. Gild. Epist. cap. 1.
OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

Yet Marianus Scotus, who was born in Ireland in the


1028th year of our Lord, was somewhat more careful to
maintain the ancient bounds of the Canon set by his fore-
fathers. For he in his Chronicle, following Eusebius and
St Jerome, at the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus writeth
" 43 Hitherto the divine
thus: Scripture of the Hebrews
containeth the order of times ; but those things that after
this were done among the Jews are represented out of the
book of the Maccabees and the writings of Joseph us and
Africanus." But before him more plainly the author of
the book de Mirabilibus Scriptures, who is accounted to
have lived here about the year 65?: " 44 In the books of
the Maccabees howsoever some wonderful things be found
which might conveniently be inserted into this rank, yet
will we not weary ourselves with any care thereof, because
we only purposed to touch in some measure a short his-
torical exposition of the wonderful things contained in the
divine Canon." As also in the apocryphal additions of
Daniel, he telleth us that what is reported
"
"touching the
lake, or den, and the carrying of Abackuk, in the fable
of Bel and the Dragon, is not therefore placed in this
rank, because these things have not the authority of divine
Scripture."
And so much concerning the holy Scriptures.

43
Hucusque Hebraeorum divina Scrip- canonis mirabilibus exiguam, quamvis
tura temporum seriem continet. Quae vero ingenioli nostri modulum excedentem,
post haec apud Judaeos sunt gesta, de libro historicam expositionem ex parte aliqua
Maccabaeorum et Joseph! atque Afri- tangeremus. Lib. ii. de Mirabilib. Script,
can! scriptis exhibentur. Marian. Chron. cap. 34, inter Opera B. Augustini, Tom.
MS. in.
44 45
In Maccabaeorum libris etsi aliquid De lacu vero iterum et Abacuk trans-
mirabilium numero inserendum conve- lato in Belis et Draconis fabula, idcu;co
niens fuisse huic ordini inveniatur; de in hoc ordine non ponitur, quod in auc-
hoc tamen nulla cura fatigabimur, quia toritate divinae Scripturae non habentur.
tantum agere proposuimus, unde divini Ibid. cap. 32.

L L
530 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

CHAPTER II.

OF PREDESTINATION, GRACE, FREE-WILL, FAITH, WORKS, JUSTIFICATION,


AND SANCTIFICAT1ON.

THE doctrine which our learned men observed out of


the Scriptures and the writings of the most approved
Fathers, was this: That God " by T
his immoveable counsel,"
as Gallus speaketh in his sermon preached at Constance,
ordained some of his creatures " to praise him, and live
blessedly from him, and in him, and by him ;" namely,
" 2
his his free calling, and his
eternal
by predestination,
grace, which due to none :" that " 3 he hath mercy
was
with great goodness, and hardeneth without any iniquity ;
so as that is delivered can glory of his own
neither he
merits, nor he that is condemned
complain but of his own
merits forasmuch as grace only maketh the distinction
:

betwixt the redeemed and the lost, who by a cause drawn


from their common original were* framed together into one
mass of perdition." For " 4
mankind stood condemned
all

in the apostatical root" of Adam " with so just and divine


a judgment, that although none should be freed from thence,
no man could rightly blame the justice of God; and such
as were freed must so have been freed, that by those many
which were not freed, but left in their most just condemna-
tion, it might be shewed what the whole lump had deserved,
that the due judgment of God should have condemned even

4
1
Praescitam et praedestinatam immo- Videt universum genus humanum
bili consilio creaturam, ad se laudandum, tarn justo judicio divinoque in apostatica
et ex se et in se et per se beate vivendum. radice damnatum, ut etiamsi nullus inde
S. Gallus in Serin, habit. Constant. liberatur, nemo recte posset Dei vituperare
2
Praedestinatione scilicet aeterna, non justitiam ; et qui liberantur, sic oportuisse
creatione temporaria, sed vocatione gra- liberari, ut ex pluribus non liberatis, atque
tuita, vel indebita gratia. Id. ibid. damnatione justissima derelictis, ostende-
3
Miseretur magna bonitate, et obdurat retur quid meruisset universa conspersio,
nulla iniquitate ; ut neque liberatus de suis quod etiam justos debitum judicium Dei
meritis glorietur, neque damnatus nisi de damnaret, nisi in ejus debitum miseri-
suis meritis conqueratur. Sola enim gratia cordia subveniret; ut volentium de suis

redemptos discernit a perditis,quos in unam meritis gloriari omne os obstruatur, et

perditionis concreaverat massam,ab origine qui gloriatur in Domino glorietur. Id.


ducta causa communi. Sedul.inRom.ix. ibid.
.]
OF PREDESTINATION, GRACE, FREE-WILL, &c. 531

those that are justified, unless mercy had relieved them from
that which was due; that so all the mouths of them which
would glory of their merits might be stopped, and he that
glorieth might glory in the Lord."
" 5 man
They further taught, as St Augustine did, that
using ill his free-will lost both himself and it :" that, as
one " by living is able to kill himself, but by killing him-
self is not able to live, nor hath power to raise up himself
when he hath killed himself, so when sin had been com-
mitted by free-will, sin being the conqueror, free-will also
was lost ; forasmuch as of whom a man is overcome, of
the same is he also brought in bondage, 2 Peter ii. 19:"
that " unto a man thus brought in bondage and sold there
is no liberty left to do well, unless he redeem him whose
saying is this, If the Son make you free, ye shall be free
" 6 the mind of men from their
indeed, John viii. 36:" that
very youth is set upon evil, there being not a maa which
sinneth not :" that a man " 7 hath nothing from himself but
sin:" that " 8 God the author of
is all good things, that
is
say, both of good nature and of good will; which,
to
unless God do work in him, man cannot do, because this

good will is prepared by the Lord in man, that by the


gift of God he may do that which of himself he could
not do by his own free-will:" that " 9 the good will of man
goeth before many gifts of God, but not all; and of those
which it doth not go before itself is one. For both of

5 8
Libero arbitrio male utens homo et Deus auctor est omnium bonorum, hoc
se perdidit et ipsum. Sicut enim qui se j
est, et naturae bona& et voluntatis bonae,
occidit, utique vivendo se occidit, sed se I

quam nisi Deus


in illo operetur, non facit
occidendo non vivit, neque seipsum pote- homo. QuiapraeparaturvoluntasaDomi-
j

rit resuscitate cum occiderit ; ita cum j


no in homine bona, ut faciat Deo donante,
libero arbitrio peccaretur, victore peccato !

quod a seipso facere non poterat per liberi


amissum est et liberum arbitrium ; a quo ;
arbitrii voluntatem. Claud, lib. i. in Matt,
enim quis devictus est, huic et servus ad- 9
j
bona voluntas hominis mul-
Praecedit
dictus est. Sed ad bene faciendum ista !
ta Dei dona, sed non omnia ; quae autem
libertas unde erit homini addicto et ven- non praecedit ipsa, in eis est et ipsa. Nam
dito, nisi redimat, cujus ilia vox est, Si utrumque legitur in sanctis eloquiis, et,
vos Filius liberaverit, vere liberi eritis ? Misericordia ejus praeveniet me, et, Mise-
j

Id. ibid. i
ricordia ejus subsequetur me : nolentem
c
Quod ab adolescentia mens hominum praevenit ut velit, volentem subsequitur,
apposita sit ad malitiam ; non est enim ne frustra velit. Cur enim admonemur
homo qui non peccet. Id. in Ephes. ii. petere ut accipiamus, nisi ut ab illo fiat
7
Quid habes ex teipso nisi peccatum ? |
quod volumus, a quo factum est ut veli-
Id. in 1 Cor. iv. mus ? Sedul. in Rom. ix.
LL2
532 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

these read in the holy Scriptures, His mercy shall go


is

before me, and, His mercy shall follow me; it preventeth


him that is unwilling that he may will, and it followeth
him that is
willing that he will not in vain ;" and that
therefore " we are admonished to ask, that we
may receive,
to the end that what we do will, may be effected by him

by whom it was effected that we did so will."


that " 10
the law was not given that
They taught also,
it
might take away sin, but that it might shut up all
under sin ;" to the end that men, being " by this means
humbled, might understand that their salvation was not in
their own hand, but in the hand of a Mediator:" that by
the law cometh " "neither the remission nor the
removal,
but the knowledge of sins:" that it " 12 taketh not away
" 13
diseases, but discovereth them ;" forgiveth not sins, but
condemneth them:" that " 14
the Lord God did it* impose
not upon those that served righteousness, but sin ; namely,

by giving a just law to unjust men, to manifest their sins,


and not to take them away; forasmuch as nothing taketh
away sins but the grace of faith, which worketh by love:"
that our " 15
sins are " 16
without the
freely forgiven us,"
:" that "
" we
merit of our works through grace are saved,
by faith, and not by works ;" and that therefore we are to
" 18 not in our own
rejoice, righteousness or learning, but in
all our sins are forgiven
the faith of the cross, by which
" 19
us : that grace is
abject and vain, if it alone do not

10
Non
ergo lex data est, ut peccatum titise servientibus, sed peccato; justam
auferret, sed ut sub peccato omnia conclu- scilicetlegem injustis hominibus dando,
deret. Lex enim ostendebat esse pecca- ad demonstranda peccata eorum, non
tum, quod illi per consuetudinem coecati auferenda. Non enim aufert peccata nisi

possent putare justitiam ; ut hoc modo gratia fidei, quae per dilectionem operatur.
humiliati cognoscerent non in sua manu Claud, in Argument. Epist. ad Gal.
15
esse salutem suam, sed in manu Media- Gratis nobis donantur peccata. Sedul.
tons. Id. in Gal. iii. in Gal. i. A morte redemptis gratis pec-
11
Non remissio nee ablatio peccatorum, cata dimittuntur. Id. in Ephes. i.

16
sed cognitio. Id. in Rom. iii. Absque operum merito et
peccata
12
Lex quae per Moysen data est, tantum nobis concessa sunt pristina, et pax indulta
peccata ostendit, non abstulit. Claud, in post veniam. Claud, in Gal. i.
17
Gal. ii. Perque illam legem morbos os- Gratia estis salvati per fid em, id est,

tendentem, non auferentem, etiam praeva- non per opera. Sedul. in Ephes. ii.
ricationis crimine contrita superbia est. Non in propria justitia vel doctrina,
18

Id. in Gal. iii. sed in fide crucis, per quam mihi omnia pec-
13
Lex non donat peccata, sed damnat. cata dimissa sunt. Sedul. et Claud Gal. vi
. .

19
Sedul. in Rom. iv. Abjecta et irrita gratia est, simihi
} *
Dominus Deus imposuerat non jus- sola non sufficit. Sedul. in Gal. ii.
II.]
OF PREDESTINATION, URACK, KRKK-WILL, &C. ,33

" 20 esteem
suffice"us; and that we basely" of Christ,
" when we think that he is not sufficient for us to salvation:"
that " 21
God hath so ordered that he will be gracious
it,

to mankind, if
they do believe that they shall be freed by
the blood" of Christ: that as " 22
the soul is the life of
the body, so faith is the soul;" and that we
life of the
" 23
live
by faith only, as owing nothing to the law :" that
" 24
he who believeth in Christ hath
the perfection of the
law. For whereas none might be justified by the law, because
none did fulfil the law, but only he which did trust in the

promise of Christ; faith was appointed, which should be


accepted for the perfection of the law, that in all things
which were omitted faith might satisfy for the whole law :"
that this righteousness therefore is "
25
not ours, nor in us,
but in Christ," in whom we are considered " as members
in the head:" that " a6
faith, procuring the remission of sins
by grace, maketh all believers the children of Abraham :"
and that " 27 it was just, that as Abraham was justified by
faith only, so also the rest that followed his faith should
be saved" after the same manner: that "
through adoption
28

we are made the in the Son of


sons of God, by believing
" 29
our adoption,
God;" and that this is a testimony of
that we have the Spirit, by which we pray" and cry, Abba,
Father; " forasmuch as none can receive so great a pledge
as this but such as be sons only:" that "
^ Moses himself

20 Christum vilem habetis, dum putatis Christo, quasi membra in capite. Id. in
eum vobis non sufficere ad salutem. Id. 2 Cor. v.
88
in Gal. iii. Fides, dimissis per gratiam peccatis,
sl
Disposuit Deus propitium se futu- omnes credentes filios efficit Abrahse. Id.
rum esse humano generi, si credant in in Rom. iv.
fuerat, ut quomodo Abraham
Id. in 27 Justum
sanguine ejus se esse liberandos.
Rom. iii. credens ex gentibus per solam fidem jus-
22
Vita corporis anima, vita animae fides fidem ejus imitantes
tificatus est, ita ceteri
est. Id. in Heb. x. salvarentur. Id. in Rom. i.

23 28
In fide vivo Filii Dei, id est, in sola Per adoptionem efficimur filii Dei,
fide, qui nihil debeo legi. Id. in Gal. ii. credendo in Filium Dei. Claud, lib. i.
24
Perfectionem legis habet qui credit in Matt.
in Christo. Cum enim nullus justificare- 29
Testimoriium adoptionis, quod habe-
tur ex lege, quia nemo implebat legem, mus Spiritum, per quern ita oramus tan- ;

nisi qui speraret in promissionem Christi ; tarn enim arrham non poterat nisi filii
fides posita est, quae cederet pro perfec- accipere. Sedul. in Rom. viii.

tione legis, ut in omnibus praetermissis 30


Ipse Moses distinxit inter utramque
fides satisfaceret pro tota lege. Id. in justitiam, fidei scilicet atque factorum ;
Horn. x.
quia altera operibus, altcra sola creduli-
-5
Non nostra, non in nobis, scd in tate justificct accedentem. Id. in Rom. x.
534 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

made a distinction betwixt both the justices, to wit, of faith


and of deeds ; that the one did by works justify him that
" 31 the
came, the other by believing only:" that patriarchs
and the prophets were not justified by the works of the
law, but by faith :" that " 32
the custom of sin hath so

prevailed, that none now can fulfil the law; as the Apostle

Peter saith, Acts xv. 10, Which neither our fathers nor we
have been able to bear. But if there were any righteous
men which did escape the curse, it was not by the works
of the law, but for their faith's sake, that they were saved."
Thus did and
Claudius, two of our most
Sedulius
famous of free-will and grace,
divines, deliver the doctrine
faith and works, the law and the Gospel, justification and

adoption ; no less agreeably to the faith which is at this


day professed in the reformed churches, than to that which
they themselves received from the more ancient doctors,
whom they did follow therein. Neither do we in our judg-
ment one whit differ from them, when they teach that
" s3 faith alone is not sufficient to life," For when it is

said, that " faith alone


justifieth," this word alone may be
conceived to have relation either to the former part of the
sentence, which in the schools they term the subject, or
to the latter, which they call the predicate. Being referred
to the former, the meaning will be, that such a faith as is
alone, that is to say, not accompanied with other virtues,
doth justify; and in this sense we utterly disclaim the
assertion. But being referred to the latter, it maketh this

sense, that faith is it which alone or only justifieth ; and in


this meaning only do we defend that proposition under- ;

standing still by faith not a dead carcase thereof, for how


should the just be able to live by a dead faith ? but a true
and lively faith, 34 which worketh by love. For as it is a
certain truth, that among all the members of the body the

31 non ex operi- Id. in


Patriarchs et prophetae legis, sed fidei gratia salvati sunt.
bus legis, sed ex fide justificati sunt. Id. Gal. iii.

33Hoc contra illos agit, qui solam fidem


in Gal. ii.

posse sufficere dicunt. Sedul. in Ephes.


32
Ita praevaluit consuetude peccandi, v. I&HI ergo sola ad vitam sufficit fides.
ut nemo jam perficiat legem ; sicut Petrus
Claud, in Gal. v. bis. Haec sententia illos
Apostolus ait, nos neque pa-
Quod neque solam fidem ad salutem ani-
revincit, qui
tres nostri portare potuimus. Si qui vero
marum suarum sufficere arbitrantur. Id-
justi non erant maledicti, non ex operibus ibid, in fine. 34
Gal. v. 6.
II.] OF PREDESTINATION, GRACE, FllEK-WILL, &C.

eye is the
only instrument whereby we see; and yet it is as
true also, that the
eye being alone and separated from the
rest of the members is dead, and for that cause doth neither
see only, nor see at all so these : two sayings likewise may
stand well enough together, that among all the virtues in
the soul faith the only instrument whereby we lay hold
is

justification ; and yet


upon Christ for our that faith, being
alone and disjoined from the of other graces, is dead
society
in itself, as ^St James speaketh, and in that respect can
neither
only justify, nor justify at all.
So though Claudius do teach as we do, that " x faith
alone saveth us, because by the works of the law no man
shall be " 37 Not
justified? yet he addeth withal this caution:.
as if the works of the law should be contemned, and without
them a simple faith" (so he calleth that solitary faith whereof
we " should be desired ;
spake, which is a simple faith indeed)
but that the works themselves should be adorned with the
faith of Christ. For that sentence of the wise man is excel-

lent, that the faithful man doth not live by righteousness,


but the righteous man by faith." In like manner Sedulius
"
acknowledged! with us, that God ^hath purposed by faith
" 39
only to forgive our sins freely," and by faith only to save
the believers;" and that when men have fallen, they are to
be renewed " 40 only by the faith of Christ, which worketh
by love :" intimating by this last clause, that howsoever
faith only be which
justifieth the man, yet
it the of work
love is necessarily required, for all that, to justify the faith.

And " this faith," saith 41 he, " when it hath been justified,
sticketh in the soil of the soul like a root which hath received
a shower; that when it hath begun to be manured by the

35 39
Jam. ii. 17. Ut sola tide salvarentur credentes.
36 Id. in Gal. iii.
Si gentes fides sola non salvat, nee 40 Per solam tidem Christi, quas per
nos quia ex operibus legis
; nemo justifi-
dilectionem operatur. Id. in Heb. vi.
cabitur. Claud, in Gal. ii.
41
Ha?c tides cum justiticata fuerit, tan-
37 Non quo legis opera contemnenda radix imbre suscepto, haeret in ani-
quam
sint, et absque eis simplex fides adpetenda ; mae solo; ut cum per legem Dei excoli
sed ipsa opera tide Christi adornentur.
cceperit, rursum in earn surgant rami, qui
Scita estenim sapientis viri ilia sententia, fructus operum ferant. Non ergo ex ope-
non tidelem vivere ex justitia, sed justum
ribus radix justitiae, sed ex radice justitije
ex fide. Id. in Gal. iii.
fructus operum crescit ; ilia scilicet radice
38 em
Gratis proposuit per solam fid justitiae, cui Deusacceptum fert justitiam

dimittere pcccata. Sedul. in Rom. iv. sine operibus. Id. in Rom. iv.
536 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

law of God, it into boughs which may


may rise up again
bear the fruit of works. Therefore the root of righteous-
ness doth not grow out of works, but the fruit of works
out of the root of righteousness; namely, out of that root
of righteousness which God doth accept for righteousness
without works." The conclusion is, That saving faith is

always a fruitful faith ; and though it never go alone, yet


may there be some gift of God which it alone is able to
48
reach unto, as Columbanus also implieth in that verse:

Sola fides fidei dono ditabitur almo.

The greatest depressers of God's grace, and the advancers


of man's abilities, were Pelagius and Celestius ; the one born
in Britain, as appeareth by Prosper Aquitanus, the other
in Scotland or Ireland, as 43 Mr Persons doth gather out
of those words of St Jerome in one of the prefaces of his
commentaries, not upon Ezekiel, as he quoteth it, but upon
Jeremiah: " 41 He hath his offspring from the Scottish nation,
near to the Britains." These heretics, as our Marianus
noteth out of Prosper in his Chronicle, preached, among
that for " attaining of righteous-
45
other of their impieties,
ness every one was governed by his own will, and received
so much grace as he did merit :" whose venomous doctrine
was repressed, first by Palladius, Lupus, Ger-
in Britain

manus, and Severus from abroad afterward by David Me- ;

nevensis and his successors at home agreeably to whose :

institution Asser Menevensis doth profess, that God is always


to be esteemed both the mover of the will and the bestower
of the good that is willed; for he is, saith he, " the insti-
46

gator of good wills, and withal the most bountiful pro-


all

vider, that the good things desired may be had; forasmuch


as he would never stir up any to will well, unless he did

43
Columban. in Monasticis. see more particularly the Answer to the
Jesuit, in the question of Free-will.
43 Pers. three Convers. part. i.
chap. 3,
46
sect. 10. Omnium bonarum voluntatum insti-

gator; necnon etiam, ut habeantur bona


44
Habet enim progeniem Scoticae gen-

tis, de Britannorum vicinia. Hieron. desiderata, largissimus administrator ; ne-


Procem. lib. iii. Commentar. in Jerem. que enim unquam aliquem bene velle in-
45
Unumquemque ad justitiam volun- quod bene
stigaret, nisi et hoc, et juste

tate propria regi ; tantumque accipere quisque habere desiderat, largiter admi-
gratis quantum meruerit. Marian. Scot. nistraret. Asser de rebus gestis yElfredi
Chron. ad ann. Dom. 413 vel 414 ; whereof E.
II.]
OF PJIEDKSTINATION, GRACE, b'RKE-WILL, &C. 537

also liberally supply that which every one doth well and
justly desire to obtain."
Among Irish the grounds of sound doctrine in
our
these points were at the beginning well settled by Palladius
and Patricius, 47 sent hither by Celestinus, Bishop of Rome.
And when the poison of the Pelagian heresy, about two
hundred years after that, began to break out among them,
the clergy of Rome, in the year of our Lord 639, during
the vacancy of the see, upon the death of Severinus, directed
their letters unto them for the preventing of this growing
mischief; other things, they put them in
wherein, among
" 48
mind, that it both blasphemy and folly to say that
is

a man is without sin, which none at all can say but that
one mediator betwixt God and man, the man Christ Jesus,
who was conceived and born without sin." Which is
agree-
of Claudius, that "
49
able partly to that it is manifest unto all
wise men, although it be contradicted by heretics, that there
is none who can live upon earth without the touch of some
that " there is none of
50
sin ;" partly to that Sedulius, of
the elect so great whom the devil doth not dare to accuse,
but him alone who did no sin, and who said, The prince
of this world cometh now, and in me he jindeth nothing"
For touching the imperfection of our sanctification in
this life, these men held the same that we do, to wit, that
the law " cannot be fulfilled;" that " 'there is none that
51 b *

doth good 9 that is to say, perfect and entire good :" that
53
God's be perfectly " holy and immaculate in
elect shall
the life to come, where the Church of Christ shall have no
" in this
spot nor wrinkle;" whereas present life they are

47 advers. Collator, diabolus non audeat accusare, nisi ilium


Prosp. Aquitan.
circa finem. solum qui peccatum non fecit, qui et
48
Blasphemia et stultiloquium est di- dicebat, Nunc venit princeps hujusmundi,
cere, esse hominem sine peccato; quod et in me nihil invenit. Sed. in Rom. viii.
omnino non potest, nisi unus mediator
51
Non potest impleri. Id. in Rom.vii.
52
Dei et hominum, homo Christus Jesus, Non est qui faciat bonum, hoc est,
qui sine peccato est conceptus et partus. perfectum et integrum bonum. Id. in

Epist. Cler. Roman, apud Bedam, Hist. Rom. iii.

lib. ii. cap. 19.


53
Ad hoc nos elegit, ut essemus sancti
49
Quia, (quod omnibus sapientibus et immaculati in futura vita; quoniam
patet, licet hseretici contraclicant) nemo Ecclesia Christi non habebit maculam
est,qui sine adtactu alicujus peccati vivere j neque rugam. Licet etiam in praesenti

possit super tcrram. Claud, lib. ii. in vita justi, et sancti, et immaculati, quam-
M at th. vis non ex toto, tamen ex parte, non in-
N'ullus clcctus est ita magnus, quern convcnicnterdicipossunt. Id. in Ephes.i-
538 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

righteous, holy, and immaculate, not wholly, but in part"


" 54 the
only: that righteous shall then be without all kind
of sin, when there shall be no law in their members that
shall resist the law of their mind;" that " 55
sin
although
do not now reign in their mortal body to obey the desires
" sin dwelleth in that mortal
thereof," yet body, the force
of that natural custom being not yet extinguished," which
we have gotten by our original, and increased by our actual,
transgressions. And as for the matter of merit, Sedulius
doth resolve us out of St Paul, that we are saints " 56 by the
calling of God, not by the merit of our deed;" that God
is able to do exceeding abundantly above that we ask or
" 57
think , according to the power that worketh in us, not
according to our merits ;" that " M whatsoever men have
from God grace, because they have nothing of due ;" and
is
" 59
that nothing can be found worthy or to be compared
with the glory to come."

CHAPTER III.

OF PURGATORY AND PRAYER FOR THE DEAD.

THE next point that offereth itself unto our consideration


that of Purgatory: whereof if any man do doubt, Cassarius,
!
is

a German monk of the Cistercian order, adviseth him for


his resolution to make a journey into Scotland, the greater

57 Secundum virtutem
54
Tune erit Justus sine ullo omnino quae operatur in
Id.
peccato, quando nulla lex erit in membris nobis, non secundum merita nostra.
ejus, repugnans legi mentis ejus. Claud, in Ephes. iii.
in Gal. v. 58
Sciendum est, quia omne quod ha-
55 Non enim jam regnat peccatum in bent homines a Deo, gratia est; nihil
eorum mottali corpore ad obediendum de- enim ex debito habent. Id. in Rom. xvi.
sideriis ejus; quamvis habitet in eodem 59
Nihil dignum inveniri vel compa-
mortali corpore peccatum, nondum ex-
rari ad futuram gloriam potest. Id. in
tincto impetu consuetudinis naturalis, qua
Rom. viii.
mortaliter nati sumus, et ex propriis vitae
Qui de purgatorio dubitat, Scotiam
1

nostrae, cum et nos ipsi peccando auximus


quod ab origine peccati humani damna- pergat, purgatorium sancti Patricii intret,
tionis trahebamus. Id. ibid. et de purgatorii pcenis amplius non dubi-
56
Vocatione Dei, non merito facti. Se- tabit. Czesar. Heisterbach. Dialog, lib.
dul. in Rom. i. xii. cap. 38.
m.] 01 PURGATORY AND PRAYER FOR THE DEAD.

Scotland he raeaneth, and there to


" enter into St Patrick's
" he
purgatory ;" and then he giveth him his word, that
shall no more doubt of the pains of purgatory." If Doctor

Terry, who commendeth this unto us as the testimony of


" 2 a most famous author,"" should chance to have a doubtful

thought hereafter of the pains of purgatory, I would wish


his ghostly father to enjoin him no other penance but the

undertaking of a pilgrimage unto St Patrick's purgatory,


to see whether he would prove any wiser when he came
from thence than when he went thither. In the mean time,
until he hath made some further experiment of the matter,
he shall give me leave to believe him that hath been there,
and hath cause to know the place as well as any, (the island
wherein it is seated being held by him as a part of the
inheritance descended unto him from his ancestors), and yet
professeth that he found nothing therein, which might afford
him any argument to think there was a purgatory. I pass
by Nennius and Probus, and all the elder writers of
that
the life that I have met withal, speak not
of St Patrick
one word of any such place, and that 3 Henry, the monk
of Saltrey, in the days of King Stephen, is the first in whom
I could ever find any mention thereof. This only would
I know of the Doctor, what the reason might be, that
where he bringeth in the words of Giraldus Cambrensis
" 4 an authentical
touching this place, as authority," he
passeth over that part of his relation wherein he affirmeth
that St Patrick intended by this means to bring the rude
" 5 of the infernal
people to a persuasion of the certainty
pains of the reprobate, and of the true and everlasting life
of the elect after death."
2
Cujus loci fama ita sparsim per omnes tigatoris, qui taliter loquitur. Thyr.
Europae partes volare visa est, ut Caesa- Discurs. Panegyric, p. 153.
rius celeberrimus auctor de eo nihil dubi- 5
De infernalibus namque reproborum
tans sic scribat. Guil. Thyraeus, in Dis- poenis, et de vera post mortem perpetua-
curs. Panegyric, de S. Patric. p. 151. que electorum vita, vir sanctus cum gente
3
Henr. Saltereyens. in lib. de Visione incredula dum ut tanta, tarn
disputasset ;

(Eni Mil ids MS. in publica Cantabrigi- inusitata, tarn inopinabilis rerum novitas
ensis Academiae Bibliotheca, et privata rudibus infidelium animis oculata ride
viri M. Thornae Alani Oxoni-
doctissimi certius imprimeretur, efficaci orationum
ensis, et in Nigro libro Ecclesia; S. Trin- instantia magnam et admirabilem utri-
itat. Dublin. usque rei notitiam, duraeque cervicis po-
4
De posteriori non minus authentica pulo perutilem, meruit in terris obtinere.
videtur Giraldi Cambrensis,
auctoritas Giral. Cambrens. Topograph. Hibern.
rerum Ibernicarum diligentissimi invcs- Distinct, n. cap. ".
540 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

The Grecians allege this


argumentsfor one of their
that had deli-
whereas " 6
their fathers
against purgatory:
vered unto them many visions and dreams and other wonders
concerning the everlasting punishment," wherewith the wicked
should be tormented in hell, yet none of them had '* declared
anything concerning a purgatory temporary fire." Belike
the Doctor was afraid that we should conclude upon the same
ground, that St Patrick was careful to plant in men's minds
the belief of heaven and hell, but of purgatory taught them
never a word. And sure I am, that in the book ascribed
unto him, de Tribus Habitaculis, which is to be seen in
his majesty's library, there is no mention of any other place
after this life, but of these two only. I will lay down
here the beginning of that treatise, and leave it to the judg-
ment of any indifferent man, whether it can well stand with
that which the Romanists teach concerning purgatory at
this day:
" 7 There be three habitations under the
power
of Almighty God, the first, the lowermost, and the middle ;
the highest whereof is called the kingdom of God or the

kingdom of heaven, the lowermost is termed hell, the middle


is named the present world, or the circuit of the earth.
The extremes whereof are altogether contrary one to another ;
{for what fellowship can there be betwixt light and darkness,
betwixt Christ and Belial?) but the middle hath some simi-
litude with the extremes. For in this world there is a mixture

6
OI TOV i<rdyye\ov <bri 7775 Belial ? )
medi um vero nonnullam habet
era'fiei>oi/3toj/, o<roi TraTepcs similitudinem ad extrema, &c. Com-
ttai TToXXa/as SL oTTTaeriwi/ /cat evvTrviwv mixtio namque malorum simul et bono-
tcai Tepwv QavfiaTiav ra irepl TT/S aicoviov rum in hoc mundo est. In regno autem
KoXaaea>s Aral TU>V ev avrrj aVe/3a>j/ icai Dei nulli mali sunt, sed omnes boni ; at
df*.apTta\(aVj avTot ye fjivou/mevoi Kal TOI/S in inferno nulli boni sunt, sed omnes mali.
aXXovs /ivoujn-es, &C. Trepl KaQapTiKov Et uterque locus ex medio suppletur.
trpodKaipov irupos ovdev ouoa/xais dietrdfpt]- Hominum enim hujus mundi alii elevan-
<rav. Marcus Ephesius, in Graecorum tur ad ccelum, alii trahuntur ad infernum.
Apolog. de Igne Purgatorio ad Concil. Similes quippe similibus junguntur, id
Basileens. boni bonis, et mali malis; justi ho-
est,
7 Tria sunt sub omnipotentis Dei nutu mines justis angelis, transgressores ho-
habitacula ; primum, imum, medium. mines transgressoribus angelis ; servi Dei
Quorum summum regnum Dei vel regnum Deo, servi diaboli diabolo. Benedict!
ccelorum dicitur, imum vocatur infernus, vocantur ad regnum sibi paratum ab ori-
medium mundus praesens vel orbis terra- gine mundi ; maledicti expelluntur in
rum appellatur. Quorum extremaomnino ignem aeternum, qui praeparatus est dia-

sibi invicem sunt contraria et nulla sibi bolo et angelis ejus. Patric. de trib.

societate conjuncta; (quae enim societas Habitac. MS. in Bibliotheca Regia Ja-

potest esse luci ad tencbras, et Christo ad cobsea.


III.]
OF PURGATORY AND PRAYKR FOR THE DKAI). 541

of the bad and of the good together ; whereas in the king-


dom of God there are none bad, but allgood ; but in hell
there are none good, but all bad. And both those places
are supplied out of the middle. For of the men of this
world, some are lifted up to heaven, others are drawn down
to hell: namely, like are joined unto like, that is to say,
good good, and bad to bad; just men to just angels,
to
wicked men to wicked angels; the servants of God to God,
the servants of the devil to the devil. The blessed are
called to the kingdom prepared for them from the beginning
of the world; the cursed are driven into the everlasting Jire
that is prepared for the devil and his angels." Thus far
there.
Hitherto also may be referred that ancient Canon of
one of our Irish Synods, wherein it is affirmed, that the
soul being separated from the body is " presented before
8

the judgment-seat of Christ, who rendereth its own unto it


" neither the arch-
according as it hath done;" and that
can lead it unto life until the Lord hath
angel judged it,
nor the devil transport it unto pain unless the Lord do
damn it :"' as the sayings of Sedulius likewise, that after
the end of this life
" 9
death or life succeedeth," and
either
that " 10
death is the gate by which we enter into our king-
dom ;" together with that of Claudius, that " "Christ did
take upon him our punishment without the guilt, that

thereby he might loose our guilt and finish also our punish-
ment." Cardinal Bellarmine indeed allegeth here against us
the vision of Furseus, who " 12 rising from the dead, told

many things which he saw concerning the pains of purgatory ;"


as Bede, he saith, doth write. But, by his good leave, we

8
Custodit animam usque dum steterit cui aut mors aut vita succedit. Sedul.
ante tribunal Christi, cui refert sua prout in Rom. vii.
10
Nee archangelus potest
gesserit propria. Mors porta est per quam itur ad reg-
ducere ad vitam usque dum judicaverit num. Id. in 1 Cor. iii.
11
earn Dominus, nee diabolus ad poenam Suscepit Christus sine reatu suppli-
Dominus damnaverit earn.
traducere, nisi cium nostrum, ut inde solver et reatum
Synod. Hibern. in vet. cod. Canonum, nostrum, et finiret etiam supplicium nos-
titulorum LXVI. MS. in Bibliotheca D. trum. Claud, in Gal. iii.
12
Robert. Cottoni. Cujus initium : Inter Beda, Hist. Anglor. lib. iii. cap. 19,
vetera Concilia, quatuor esse venerabiles scribit,B. Furseum a mortuis resurgen-
Synodos, &c. tem narrasse multa quae vidit de purga-
9
Finem dixit exitum vita; et actuum toriis poenis. Bellarm. de Purgator. lib.
;

i.
cap. 11.
542 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

willbe better advised before we build articles of faith upon


such visions and dreams as these ; many whereof deserve
to have a place among " 13 the strange narrations of souls
appearing after death,"" collected by Damascius the heathen
idolater, rather than among the histories and discourses of
sober Christians.
As for this vision ofFurseus, all that Bede relateth of
it to this purpose concerning certain great fires above
is
" 14 examine
the air, appointed to every one according to the
merits of his works." Which peradventure may make
something for Damascius^s purgatory in circulo lacteo, (for
15
in that circle made he a way for the souls that went to
16
the hades in heaven, and would not have us wonder that
there they should be purged by the way,) but nothing for
the Papists'* purgatory, which Bellarmine, by the common
consent of the schoolmen, determineth to be within the
bowels of the earth. Neither is there anything else in the
whole book of the Life of Furseus, whence Bede borrowed
these things, that looketh toward purgatory, unless perad-
venture that speech of the devil may be thought to give
some advantage unto it: " 17 This man hath not purged his
sins upon earth, neither doth he receive punishment for
them here: where is therefore the justice of God?" As if
God's justice were not sufficiently satisfied by the sufferings
of Christ, but man also must needs -give further satisfaction
thereunto by penal works or sufferings, either here or in the
other world. Which is the ground upon which our Roman-
ists do lay the rotten frame of their devised purgatory.
The later visions of Malachias, Tundal, Owen, and
others that lived within these last five hundred years, come
not within the compass of our present enquiry ; nor yet the
fables that have been framed in those times touching the
lives and actions of elder saints, whereof no wise man will

13 15
Aafiaa-Kiov irepl TWV /xera Qa.va.Tov 'O o5os ea-Ti TO ya'Xa Ttav oiairopevo-
TOV ev ovpavup aoiiv. Damasc. apud
fievcov

judVajv Ke</>a\aia pe. Phot. Bibliothec. Jo. Philoponum in 1 Meteor, fol. 104. b.
16
num. 130. Kcu ov QavfiatTTov, el /cat ^/v^ai
14
Etsi terribilis iste et grandis rogus KaQaipovTai ev TOVTCO TU> KVK\(O T^S ev
videtur, tamen juxta merita operum sin- ovpavio yei/eo-ews. Id. ibid.

gulos examinat; quia uniuscujusque cu-


17 Hie homo non purgavit delicta sua

piditas in hoc igne ardebit. Bed. lib. iii. in terra, nee vindictam hie recipit. Ubi
cap. 19. est ergo justitia Dei ? Lib. Vitae Fursei.
1 1 1
1
OF PURGATORY AND PRAYKR FOR THK I)p;AD. 543

make any Such, for example, is that which we


reckoning.
read in Brendan, that the question being
the life of St
moved in his hearing, " ls Whether the sins of the dead could
be redeemed by the prayers or alms-deeds of their friends
remaining in this life ?" (for that was still a question in the

Church,) he is said to have told them, that on a certain night,


19
as he sailed in the great ocean, the soul of one Colman, who
"had been an angry monk and a sower of discord betwixt bre-
thren," appeared unto him ; who, complaining of his grievous
torments, entreated that prayers might be made to God for
him, and after six days thankfully acknowledged that by
means thereof he had gotten into heaven. Whereupon it
is
" ^that the of the doth
concluded, prayer living profit
much the dead" But of St Brendan's sea-pilgrimage we
have the censure of Molanus, a learned Romanist, that
there be " 21 many apocryphal fooleries" in it; and whosoever
readeth the same with any judgment, cannot choose but pro-
nounce of it, as Photius doth of the Strange Narrations
of Damascius formerly mentioned, that it containeth not
" "
only apocryphal," but also ^impossible, incredible, ill-

composed, and monstrous" fooleries. Whereof though the


old legend itself were not free, (as by the heads thereof,
touched by Glaber Rodulphus and Giraldus Cambrensis,
may appear,) yet for the tale that I recited out of the
23
New Legend of England, I can say that in the manuscript
books which I have met withal here, in St Brendan's own
country, one whereof was transcribed for the use of the
friars minors of Kilkenny, about the year of our Lord 1350,
there is not the least footstep thereof to be seen.
And this is a thing very observable in the ancient
lives of saints, (such I mean as have been written before
our
the time of Satan's loosing, beyond which we do not now

look,) that the prayers and oblations for the dead mentioned

18
Si peccata mortuorum redimi pos- quod oratio vivorum multum mortuis
sunt ab amicis suis remanentibus in prodest. Ibid.
21
hac vita, orando, vel eleemosynas fa- Multa apocrypha deliramenta. Mo-
ciendo. Vit. Brendani, in Legenda Jo. Ian. in Usuard. Martyrolog. Mai. xxvi.
Capgravii.
22 'A5ui/aTa T Kai d'Trtdava, KOL /ca-
19
Colmannus, inquit, vocor, qui fui /coTrXatrToc TepaToXoytj^iaTa /cat fjuapd.
monachus iracundus discordiaeque semi- Phot. Bibliothec. num. 130.
23
nator inter tratres. Ibid. Nova Legenda Angliae. Impress.
20
In hoc ergo, dilectissimi, apparet, j
Londin. aim. 1516.
544 HELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IUISH. [CHAP,

therein are expressly noted to have been made for them


whose souls were supposed at the same instant to have
rested in bliss. So Adamnanus reporteth, that St Colme,
called by the Irish, both in ^'Bede's and our days, Colum-

kill, ^caused all


things to be prepared for the sacred
ministry of the Eucharist, when he had seen the soul of
St Brendan received by the holy angels and that he did ;

the like when Columbanus, Bishop of Leinster, departed


this life. For " I must to day," saith St Colme 26
there,
" be unworthy, celebrate the holy mysteries of
although I
the Eucharist for the reverence of that soul which this

night, carried beyond the starry firmament betwixt the holy


quires of angels, ascended into paradise." Whereby it

appeareth that an honourable commemoration of the dead


was herein intended, and a sacrifice of thanksgiving for
their salvation, rather than of propitiation for their sins.
In Bede also we find mention of the like obsequies celebrated
by St Cuthbert for one
Hadwaldus, after
27
he " had seen
his soul carried by the hands of angels unto the joys of
the kingdom of heaven." So Gallus and Magnus, as Wala-
fridus Strabus relateth in the life of the one, and Theodorus

Campidonensis, or whosoever else was author of the life of


the other, " ^said Mass," which what it was in those days
we shall afterward hear, " and were instant in prayers for
the commemoration" of Abbot Columbanus their country-
man " 29 the of that Father
; frequenting memory great
with holy prayers and healthful sacrifices." Where that

speech of Gallus unto his Deacon Magnus or Magnoaldus


" 30
After this
is
worthy of special consideration :
night's

24 28
videlicet Columba nunc a non-
Qui Coeperunt missas 'agere, et precibus
composite a cella et Columba no-
nullis, insistere pro commemoratione B. Colum-
mine, Columcelli vocatur. Bed. Hist, bani. Walafrid. Vit. Gall, lib. i.
cap. 26.
lib. v. cap. 10. Theodor. Vit. Magni, lib.i.cap.ult. edit.
25
Adamn. Vit. Columb. lib. iii.
cap. Goldasti, cap. 12, Canisii.
29
Deinde tanti patris memoriam pre-
26
Meque, ait, hodie, quamlibet indig- j
dbus sacrig et sacrificiis sa i utaribus fre-
nus sim, ob venerationem illius aninife,
q uen taverunt.
i

Ibid,
quae hac in nocte inter sanctos angelorum
Post huJ us vi S ilias noctis c Snovi
choros vecta ultra siderea ccelorum spatia i

ad patadisum ascendit, sacra oportet Eu- !


P er visionem > Dominum et patrem meum
Id. cap. 16. j
Columbanum de hujus vitae angustiis
charisticEcelebraremysteria.
2 hodie ad P aradlsl S audia commigrasse.
7Vidi,inquit,animamcujusdamsancti
Pro ejus itaque requie sacrificium salutis
manibusangelicisadgaudiaregniccelestis i

debeo imroolare. Ibid.


fern. Bed. in Vit. Cuthbert. cap. 34. |
in.] OF ITKGATOK v A\I> PKAY;;:; KOU THK DKAD. .j}/;

watch understood by a vision that my master and father,


I

Columbanus, is to-day departed out of the miseries of this


lifeunto the joys of paradise. For his rest therefore I
ought to offer the sacrifice of salvation." In like manner
also,when Gallus himself died, " 31 John, Bishop of Constance,
prayed to the Lord for his rest, and offered healthful sacrifices
for him," although he were certainly persuaded that he had
attained the blessing of everlasting life; as may be seen in
Walafridus. And when Magnus afterwards was in his
death-bed, he is said to have used these words unto Tozzo,
" 32 Do not
Bishop of Ausburgh, that came to visit him:
weep, reverend prelate, because thou beholdest me labouring
in so many storms of worldly troubles, because I believe
in the mercy of God, that my soul shall rejoice in the
freedom of immortality. Yet I beseech thee, that thou wilt
not cease to help me a sinner and my soul with thy holy

prayers." Then followeth, that at the time of his departure


this voice was heard: "
33
Come, Magnus, come, receive the
crown which the Lord hath prepared for thee :" and that
thereupon Tozzo said unto Theodorus, the supposed writer
of this " ^Let us cease brother; because
history, weeping,
we ought rather having heard this sign of the
to rejoice,
receiving of his soul unto immortality, than to make lamen-
tation. But let us go to the church, and be careful to
offer healthful sacrifices to the Lord for so dear a friend."
I dispute not of the credit of these particular passages:
that the authors from whom we have received
it is sufficient

them lived within the compass of those times whereof we

31
Presbyter eum ut surgeret monuit, tuis sanctis me peccatorem et animam
etpro requie defunct! ambitiosius Domi- meam non desinas adjuvare. Theodor.
num precaretur. Intraverunt itaque ec- j
Campidon. vel quicunque auctor fuit Vita
episcopus pro carissimo salutares
clesias, et Magni, lib. ii. cap. 13, edit. Goldasti,
hostias immolavit amico. Finito autem j
cap. 28, Canisii.
fraternae commemorationis obsequio, &c. ^ Veni, Magne, veni, accipe coronam
Walafrid. Strab. Vit. Gal. lib. i.
cap. 30, quam tibi Dominus praeparatam habet.
(jui etiam addit postea, Discipulos ejus Ibid.
**
pariter cum episcopo oration em pro illo Cessemus flere, f rater, quia pot vis i

fecisse, cap. 33. nos oportet gaudere de animae ejus in im-


32
Noli flere, venerabilis praesul, quia mortalitate sumptae hoc signo audito, quam
me in tot mundialium perturbationum luctum facere; sed eamus ad ecclesiam,
procellis laborantem conspicis; quoniam et pro tarn carissimo amico salutares
credo in misericordia Dei, quod anima hostias Domino immolare studeamus.
mea in immortalitatis libertate sit gavi- Finito itaque fraterns commemorationis
sura. Tamen deprecor, ut orationibus obsequio, &c. Ibid.
M M
546 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

now do treat. For thereby it is


plain enough (and if it

be not, it shall elsewhere be made yet more plain), that


in those elder
days it was an usual thing to make prayers
and oblations for the rest of those souls which were not
doubted to have been in glory ; and consequently that
neither the commemoration, nor the praying for the dead,
nor the requiem masses of that age, have any necessary
relation to the belief of purgatory. The lesson, therefore,
which Claudius teacheth us here out of St Jerome, is very
" Awhile we are in this
good, that present world, we may
be able to help one another either by our prayers or by
our counsels; but when we shall come before the judg-
ment-seat of Christ, neither Job, nor Daniel, nor Noah,
can entreat for any one, but every one must bear his own
burden." And the advice which the no less learned than
godly Abbot Columbanus giveth us is
very safe, not to
" trust in
pitch upon uncertainties hereafter, but now to
God and follow the precepts of Christ, while our life doth
yet remain, and while the times wherein we may obtain
salvation are certain :"

36
Vive Deo fidens, (saith he,) Christ! praecepta sequendo;
Dum modo vita manet, dum tempora certa salutis.

Whereunto John the Briton, another son of Sulgen, Bishop


of St David's, also to have an eye, when, at
seemeth
the end of the poem which he wrote of his own and his
father's life, he prayeth for himself in the same manner :

Ut genitor clemens solita pietate remittat


Factis aut dictis quaB gessi corde nefando;
Dum mihi vita manet, dum flendi flumina possunt:
Nam cum tartareis nullius cura subintrat.

35
Dum in praesenti seculo sumus, sive nee Noe, rogare posse pro quoquam, sed
orationibus, sive consiliis invicem posse unumquemque portare onus suum. Claud,
nos adjuvari; cum autem ante tribunal in Gal. vi.
36 ad Hunaldum.
Christi veuerimus, nee Job, nee Daniel, Columban. in Epist.
IV.]
01- THK \VOIISII I I' 01- COD, \-f. .
") 1
J

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE WORSHIP OF GOD, THE PUBLIC FORM OF LITURGY, TIIK


SACRIFICE AND SACRAMENT OF THE LORD'S SUPPER.

the worship of God Sedulius delivereth this


TOUCHING
" to adore
any other beside the Father
l

general rule, that


and the Son and the Holy Ghost is the crime of impiety ;"
and that " 2
all that the soul oweth unto God, if it bestow
it
upon any beside God, it committeth adultery." 'More
3
particularly in the matter of images, he reproveth the wise
men of the heathen for thinking that they had found out
a way, " how the invisible God might be worshipped by a
visible image;"" with whom also accordeth Claudius, that
4
God is to be " known neither in metal nor in stone."
And for oaths, there is a canon ascribed to St Patrick,
wherein it is determined that "
no creature is to be sworn 5

11

by, but only the Creator. As for the form of the Liturgy,
or public service of God, which the same St Patrick brought
into this country, it is said that he received it from Ger-
manus and Lupus, and that it originally descended from
St Mark the Evangelist for so have I seen it set down:

in an ancient fragment written well nigh 900 years since,

remaining now in the library of Sir Robert Cotton, my


worthy friend, who can never sufficiently be commended for
his extraordinary care in preserving all rare monuments of
this kind. Yea, St Jerome's authority is there vouched for
proof hereof: Beatus Hieronymus adfirmat, quod ipsum
cursum, qui dicitur prcesente tempore Scotorum, beatlts
Marcus decantavit. Which being not now to be found in
any of St Jerome's works, the truth thereof I leave unto
the credit of the reporter.

1
Adorare alium praeter Patrem et visibilis Deus per simulacrum visibile
Filium et 8piritum sanctum, impietatis coleretur. Id. in Rom. i.
4
crimen est. Sedul. in Rom. i. Deus non in manufactis habitat, nee
2
Totum quod debet Deo anima, si in metallo aut saxo cognoscitur. Claud,
alicui praeter Deum reddiderit, mcechatur. lib. ii. in Matt.
5
Id. in Rom. ii. Non adjurandam esse creaturam a-
3
Recedentes a lumine veritatis sapien- liam, nisi Creatorem. Synod. Patricti,
tes, quasi qui invenissent quo modo in-
|
Can. xxm. MS.
MM
548 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

But whatsoever Liturgy was used here at first, this is

sure, that in the succeeding ages no one general form of


divine service was retained, but divers rites and manners of
celebrations were observed in divers parts of this kingdom,
until the Roman
was brought in at last by Gille-
use
bertus and Malachias and Christianus, who were the Pope's
legates here about 500 years ago. This Gillebertus, an
c
old acquaintance of Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, in
the prologue of his book de Usu Ecclesiastico, directed to
the whole clergy of Ireland, writeth in this manner: " 7 At
the request, yea, and at the command of many of you,

dearly beloved, I endeavoured to set down in writing the


canonical custom in saying of hours and performing the
office of the whole ecclesiastical order, not presumptuously,
but in desire to serve your most godly command ; to the
end that those divers and schismatical orders, wherewith in
a manner all Ireland is deluded,
may give place to one
Catholic and Roman office. For what may be said to be
more undecent or schismatical, than that the most learned
in one order should be made as a private and lay man in
another man's church?"
These beginnings were presently seconded by Malachias,
in whose life, written by Bernard, we read as followeth :

" 8 The
apostolical constitutions and the decrees of the holy
Fathers, but especially the customs of the holy Church of
Rome, did he establish in all churches. And hence it is,
that at this day the canonical hours are chanted and sung
therein according to the manner of the whole earth ; whereas

6
Anselm. lib. iii. Epist. CXLTII. Prolog. Gille. sive Gilbert! Lunicensis
7
Episcopis, presbyteris totius Hiber- Episc. de Usu Ecclesiastic. MS. in Col-
niae, infimus praesulum Gillebertus Luni- leg. S. Benedict, et Publica Academiae
censis in Christo salutem. Rogatu, nee Cantabrigiensis Bibliotheca.
non et praecepto multorum ex vobis, ca-
8
Apostolicas sanctiones ac decreta sanc-
rissimi, canonicalem consuetudinem in torum patrum, praecipueque consuetudines
dicendis horis et peragendo totius eccle- sanctae Romanae ecclesia?, in cunctis eccle-
siastici ordinis officio, scribere conatus siis statuebat. Hinc est quod hodieque in
sum, non praesumptivo, sed vestrae cupiens illis ad horas canonicas cantatur et psalli-

piissimae servire jussioni ; ut diversi et tur juxta morem universas terrae; nam
schismatici illi ordines, quibus Hibernia minime id ante fiebat, ne in civitate qui-
pene tota delusa est, uni Catholico et dem. Ipse vero in adolescentia cantum
Romano cedant officio. Quid enim magis didicerat, et in suo ccenobio mox cantari
indecens aut schismaticum dici poterit, fecit ; cum necdum in civitate seu in

quam doctissimum unius ordinis in alte- episcopatu universo cantare scirent, vel
rius ecclesia idiotam et laicum fieri ? &c. vellent. Bernard, in Vita Malachiae.
OK Tin; wousiiii' OK i; oi),

before that this was not done, no, not in the city itself:
" But
the poor city of Armagh he nieaneth. Malacbiftfl
had learned song in his youth, and shortly after caused
singing to be used in his own monastery, when as yet, as
well in the city as in the whole bishoprick, they either
knew not or would not sing." Lastly, the work was brought
to perfection, when Christianus, Bishop of Lismore, as legate
to the Pope, was president in the Council of Cashel, wherein
a special order was taken for " 9 the right singing of the
ecclesiastical office," and a general act established, that
" 10 all
divine offices of holy Church should from thenceforth be
handled in all parts of Ireland, according as the Church
of England did observe them." The statutes of which
Council were "confirmed by the regal authority of King
12 " mandate" the
Henry the Second, by whose bishops that
met therein were assembled, in the year of our Lord 1171>
as Giraldus Cambrensis witnesseth in his History of the

Conquest of Ireland. And thus late was it before the


Roman use was fully settled in this kingdom.
That the Britons used another manner in the adminis-
tration of the Sacrament of baptism than the Romans did,
appeareth by the proposition made unto them by Austin
the monk, " 13 that they should perform the ministry of

baptism according to the custom of the Church of Rome."


That their form of Liturgy was the same with that which
was received by their neighbours the Gauls, is intimated by
the author of that ancient fragment before alleged, who
also addeth, that the " 14 Gallican order was received in the
Church throughout the whole world." Yet elsewhere do
I meet with a sentence alleged out of Gildas, that "
15
the

9
Officium etiam ecclesiasticum rite
13
Ut ministerium baptizandi, quo Deo
modulandum statuerunt. Johan. Bramp- renascimur, juxta morem sanctae Romanae
MS. et apostolicae ecclesiae compleatis. Bed.
ton, in Joralanensi Historia
10
Omnia divina ad instar sacrosanctae Histor. lib. ii. cap. 2.
14
ecclesiae, juxta quod Anglicana observat Per universum orbem terrarum in
ecclesia, in omnibus partibus Hiberniae a ecclesia ordo cursusGallorum diffusus est.
modo tractentur. Girald. Cambr. Hibern. Fragment, de Ecclesiasticorum Officiorum
Expugnat. lib.cap. 34.
i. Origine MS. Bibliotheca Cottoniana.
11
Concilii statuta subscripta sunt, et
15
Gildas t, Britones toti mundo con-
regiae sublimitatis auctoritate firmata. Id. trarii, moribus Romanis inimici non so-
ibid. lum in missa, seel etiam in tonsura. Cod.
'-
Ex ipsius triumphatoris mandate, in C'anonum, titulorum 66, MS. in eadem
civitate Cassiliensi conyenerunt. Id, ibid. Bibliotheca.
550 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

Britons were contrary to the whole world, and enemies to


the Roman customs," as well in their " Mass" as in their
" tonsure."
Where, to let pass what I have collected touching the
difference of these tonsures, as a matter of very small
moment either way, and so to speak somewhat of the Mass,
for which so great ado is now-a-days made by our Romanists,
we may observe in the first place, that the public Liturgy
or service of the Church was of oldnamed the Mass, even
then when prayers only were said without the cele-
also
bration of the holy Communion. So the last Mass that
St Colme was ever present at is noted by 16 Adamnanus
to have been vesper tinalis Dominicce noctis Missa. He died
the midnight following, whence the Lord's day took his
beginning, (viz. 9th Junii, Anno Dom. 597,) according to
the account of the Romans, which the Scottish and Irish
seem to have begun from the evening going before, and
then was that evening Mass said, which in all likelihood
17
differed not from those
eaTrepival /uLiaai mentioned by Leo
the Emperor in his Tactics, that is to say, from that which
we call Evensong or Evening-prayer. But the name of the
Mass was in those days more specially applied to the ad-
ministration of the Lord's Supper ; and therefore in the same
18
Adamnanus we see, that sacra Eucharistice ministeria and
Missarum solemnia, the " sacred ministry of the Eucharist"
arid " the solemnities of the Mass," are taken for the same

thing. So likewise in the 19 relation of the passages that


concern the obsequies of Columbanus performed by Gallus
and Magnoaldus, we find that Missam celebrare and Missas
agere is made to be the same with dimna celebrare mys-
teria, and salutis hostiam, or salutare sacrificium immolare ;
the saying of Mass the same with the " celebration of the
divine mysteries" and the " oblation of the healthful sacrifice ;"
for by that term was the administration of the Sacrament
of the Lord's Supper at that time usually designed.
For as in our 20 beneficence and communicating unto the
necessities of the poor, which are sacrifices wherewith God

16 Theodor. Campidonens. vel quicun-


Adamnan.Vit.Columb.lib.iii.cap.31. 26.
17 fuit Vit.
Leon. Tactic, cap. 11, sect. 18. que auctor Magni, lib. i. cap. 9,
18 edit. Goldast. cap. 12, Canisii.
Adamnan.Vit.Columb.lib.iii.cap.l5.
'
9
M alafrid. Strab. Vit.Gall, lib.
r
i. cap.
2n
Heb. xiii. 16.
01- THK WORSHIP OK GOD, &C. 55 1

al
is well pleased, weare taught to give both ourselves and
our alms first unto the Lord, and after unto our brethren
by the will of God so ; is it in this ministry of the blessed
Sacrament. The service is first
presented unto God, (from
which, as from a most principal part of the duty, the
Sacrament itself is called the Eucharist, because therein we
Coffer a special sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving always
unto God), and then communicated to the use of God's
people. In the performance of which part of the service
both the minister was said to give and the communicant
to " receive the sacrifice ;" as well as in respect of the former

part they were said to offer the same unto the Lord. For
they did not distinguish the sacrifice from the Sacrament,
as the Romanists do now-a-days, but used the name of

indifferently, both of that which was offered unto


sacrifice

God, and of that which was given to and received by the


communicant. Therefore we read of " offering the sacrifice"
to God, as in that speech of Gallus to his scholar Magno-
" 23
master Columbanus is accustomed to offer unto
aldus, My
the Lord the sacrifice of salvation in brasen vessels;" of
"
giving the sacrifice" to man, as when it is said in one of
24
the ancient Synods of Ireland, that a bishop by his testa-
ment may bequeath a certain proportion of his goods for
a legacy " to the priest that giveth him the sacrifice ;" and
of " receiving the sacrifice" from the hands of the minister,
as in that sentence of the Synod attributed unto St Patrick,
" He who deserveth not to receive the sacrifice in his life,
25

how can it help him after his death ?" and in that gloss
of Sedulius upon 1 Cor. xi. 33, " 26 Tarry one for another,"
that is, saith he, " until you do receive the sacrifice ;" and
in the British antiquities, where we read of Amon, a noble-
man Wales, father to Samson, the saint of Dole, in little
in
" 27
Britain, that, being taken with a grievous sickness, he
81 2a
2 Cor. viii. 5. Heb. xiii. 15. ficium accipere, quomodopost mortem illi
23
Praeceptor meus B. Columbanus in potest adjuvare ? Synod. Patric. cap. 12,
vasis acneis Domino solet sacrificium of- MS.
26
ferre salutis. Walafrid. Strab. Vit. Gall, Invicem exspectate, id est, usquequo
lib. i.
cap. 19. sacrificium accipiatis. Sedul. in 1 Cor. xi.
24 27 Gravi infirmitate
Testamentum episcopi sive principis depressus, a suis
est, 10 scripuli sacerdoti danti sibi sacrifi- commonitus est vicinis, ut juxta morem
cium. Synod. Hibern. in vet. lib. Cano- susciperet sacrificium communionis. Ex
num Cottoniano, titulorum 66. Vita S. Samsonis MS. in libro Landaven-
25
Qui in vita sua non mcrebitur sacri- sis Ecclesiae vocat. Tito.
552 RELIGION OK THE ANCIENT TItlSH. [CHAP.

was admonished by his neighbours, that according to the


usual manner he should receive the sacrifice of the Com-
munion." Whereby it doth appear that the sacrifice of
the elder times was like not unto the new Mass of the
Romanists, wherein the priest alone doth all, but unto
our Communion, where others also have free liberty given
unto them to 28 eat of the altar, as well as they that serve
the altar.

Again, they that are communicants in the Romish Sacra-


ment receive the Eucharist in one kind only the priest in :

offering of the sacrifice receiveth the same distinctly both by


29
way of meat and by way of drink which, they tell us, is ;

"
chiefly done for the integrity of the sacrifice, and not of
For in the sacrifice, they say, " 30 the
" 1

the Sacrament.
several elements be consecrated, not into Christ's whole
person as it was born of the Virgin, or now is in heaven ;
but the bread into his body apart, as betrayed, broken, and
given for us; the wine into his blood apart, as shed out
of his body of sins and dedication of the
for remission
New which be conditions of his person, as he
Testament;
11
was in sacrifice and oblation. But our ancestors, in the
use of their Sacrament, received the Eucharist in both kinds,
not being so acute as to discern betwixt the things that
belonged unto the integrity of the sacrifice and of the
Sacrament, because in
very truth they took the one to be
the other.
Thus Bede that one Hildmer, an officer of
relateth

Egfrid, King of
Northumberland, entreated our Cuthbert
31
to send a priest that might
" minister the Sacraments of
the Lord's body and blood" unto his wife that then lay

a-dying and Cuthbert himself, immediately before his own


;

" Communion of
departure out of this life, received the
32
the Lord's body and blood," as Herefride, Abbot ofvthe
monastery of Lendisfarne, who was the man that at that
time ministered the Sacrament unto him, made report unto

28 Heb. xiii. 10. quam moriatur, visitet; eique Dominici


corporis et sanguinis sacramenta ministret.
29 non
Id fit potissimum ob sacrificii,
ob sacramenti integritatem. Bellarmin. Bed. de Vit. Cuthbert. Pros. cap. 15.
de Sacrament. Eucharist, lib. iv. cap. 22,
32
Acceptis a me sacramentis salutari-
in fine. bus exitum suum, quern jam venisse
30 Rhem. Annotat. in Matt. xxvi. 26. cognovit, Dominici corporis et sanguinis
al
Mittas presbyterum qui illam, prius- communione munivit. Ibid. cap. 39.
l\
i
OK THE WORSHIP OF COD. &C,

the same Bede; who elsewhere also particularly noteth that


he then tasted of the cup :

3
~'
Poeula degustat vito, Christique supinum
Sanguine munit iter:

lest
any man should think that under the forms of bread
alone he might be said to have been partaker of the
body
and blood of the Lord, by way of concomitance, which
isa toy that was not once dreamed of in those days. So
thatwe need not to doubt, what is meant by that which
we read in the book of the Life of Furseus, which was
written before the time of Bede, that " :w
he received the
Communion of the holy body and blood," and that he was
wished to admonish ^the pastors of the Church that they
should strengthen the souls of the faithful " with the spiritual
food of doctrine, and the participation of the holy body
and blood:" or of that which Cogitosus writeth in the
Life of St Bridget, touching the place in the church of
Kildare, ^whereunto the Abbatess with her maidens and
widows used to resort, "
that they might enjoy the banquet
of the body and blood of Jesus Christ:" which was agree-
able to the practice, not only of the nunneries founded

beyond the seas, according to the rule of Columbanus,


where the virgins " 37
received the body of the Lord, and
sipped his blood," as appeareth by that which Jonas relateth
of Domna, in the Life of Burgundofora ; but also of St

Bridget herself, who was the foundress of the monastery


of Kildare, one of whose miracles is reported, even in the
latter legends, to have happened when she was about to
" drink out of the chalice" at the time of her
receiving
of the Eucharist. Which
they that list to look after
may find in the collections of Capgrave, Surius, and such
like.

33 36
Bed. de Vit. Cuthbert. Carm. cap. 36. Per alterum ostium abbatissa cum
34
Petivitque et accepit sacri coiporis et suis puellis et viduis fidelibus tantum

sanguinis communionem. Auctor antiqu. iverat, (leg. intrat), ut convivio corporis


Vitae Fursei. et sanguinis fruantur Jesu Christi.
Cogi-
15
Principes et doctores ecclesiae Christ! tos. Vit. Brigid.
animas fidelium ad pcenitentiae lamentum 37
Quaedam ex his nomine Domna,
post culpas provocent, et eas spiritual! cum jam corpus Domini accepisset ar
pastu doctrinae ac sacri corporis et san- sanguinem libat>set. Jon. Vit. Burgun-
guinis participatione solidas reddant. Ib. dof.
554 RELIGION OF THE ANCIEXT IRISH. [cHAl*.

But, you will say, these testimonies that have been


allegedmake not so much for us in proving the use of the
" Communion under both
kinds," as they make against us
in
confirming the opinion of transubstantiation ; seeing they
all
specify the receiving, not of bread and wine, but of the
body and blood of Christ. I answer, that forasmuch as
Christ himself, at the first institution of his holy Supper,
did say expressly, This is my body, and This is my blood,
he deserveth not the name of a Christian thatwill question
the truth of that saying, or refuse to
speak in that lan-
guage which he hath heard his Lord and Master use before
him. The question only is, in what sense and after what
manner these things must be conceived to be his body and
blood. Of which there needed to be little question, if men
would be pleased to take into their consideration these two
things, which were never doubted of by the ancient, and
have most evident ground in the context of the Gospel.
First, That the subject of those sacramental propositions
delivered by our Saviour, that is to say, the demonstrative

particle THIS, can have reference to no other substance but


that which he then held in his sacred hands, namely, bread
and wine, which are of so different a nature from the body
and blood of Christ, that the one cannot possibly in proper
sense be said to be the other, as the light of common
reason doth force the Romanists themselves to confess.
Secondly, That in the predicate, or latter part of the same
propositions, there is not mention made only of Christ's
body and blood, but of his body broken and his blood
shed; to shew that his bocly is to be considered here apart,
not " as it was born of the Virgin, or now is in heaven,"
but as it was broken and crucified for us and his blood;

likewise apart, not as running in his veins, but " as shed


out of his body," which the Rhemists have told us to be
" conditions of his
person as he was in sacrifice and oblation."
And lest we should imagine that his body were other-
wise to be considered in the Sacrament than in the sacrifice,
in the one alive, asit is now in heaven, in the other dead, as

it was offered upon thecross, the Apostle putteth the matter


out of doubt, that not only the minister in offering, but
also the
people in receiving, even ^as often as they eat this
38 1 Cor. xi. 26.
OK THE WORSHIP OF GOD, 555

bread and drink this C?y>, do shew the 7,rW.v death until
he come. Our surely, that held the sacrifice to be
elders,

given and received (for so we have heard themselves speak),


as well as offered, did not consider otherwise of Christ in
the Sacrament than "as he was
in sacrifice and oblation."
If here, therefore, Chrisesbody be presented as broken and
lifeless, and his blood as shed forth and severed from his

body, and it be most certain that there are no such things


now really existent any where, as is confessed on all hands ;

then must follow necessarily, that the bread and wine are
it

not converted into these things really. The 39 Rhemists indeed


tell us, that when the Church doth offer and sacrifice Christ
" he in
daily, mystery and sacrament dieth." Further than
this they durst not go; for if they had said he died really,
they should thereby not only make themselves daily killers
of Christ, but also directly cross that principle of the Apostle,
Rom. vi. 9, Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more.
If, then, the body of Christ, in the administration of the
Eucharist, be propounded as dead, as hath been shewed,
"
and die it cannot
really, but only in mystery and sacra-
1 '

ment, how can it be thought to be contained under the


outward elements, otherwise than "in sacrament and mystery?"
And such as in times past were said to have received the
sacrifice from the hand of the priest, what other body and
blood could they expect to receive therein, but such as was
suitable to the nature of that to "
sacrifice, wit, mystical
and sacramental?"
Ccelius Sedulius, (to whom Gelasius, Bishop of Rome,
with his Synod of seventy bishops, giveth the title of
" venerable Sedulius," as Venantius Fortunatus of " 41 con-
40

spicuous Sedulius," and Hildephonsus Toletanus of the


" 42
good Sedulius, the evangelical poet, the eloquent orator,
and the catholic writer,") is by Trithemius and others sup-
43
posed to be the same with our Sedulius of Scotland, or

39 42
Rhem. in Matt. xxvi. 26. Bonus Sedulius, poeta evangelicus,
40
Veuerabilis viri Sedulii Paschale orator facundus, scriptor catholicus. Hil-

opus, quod heroicis descripsit versibus, dephons. Toletan. Serm. v. de Assumpt.


insigni laude praeferimus. Synod. Roman, Mariae.
sub Gelasio. 43
Sedulii, Scoti Hiberniensis, in omnes
41
Hinc quoque conspicui radiavit lin-
Epistolas Pauli Collectan. Excus. Basil,
gua Seduli. Venant. Fortunat. de Vita ann. 1528.
S. Martini, lib. i.
556 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT HUSH. [CHAP

Ireland, whose collections are extant upon St Paul's Epistles,


although I have forborne hitherto to use any of his testi-
monies, because I have some reason to doubt whether he
were the same with our Sedulius or no. But Ccelius Sedulius,
whatsoever countryman he was, intimateth plainly that the
" the fruit of
things offered in the Christian sacrifice are
the corn and of the vine :"

44
Denique Pontificum princeps suramusque Sacerdos
Quis nisi Christus adest? gemini libaminis auctor,
Ordine Melchisedech, cui dantur munera semper
Quse sua sunt, segetis fructus, et gaudia vitis.

" 45 The sweet meat


Or, as he expresseth it in his prose,
of the seed of wheat, and the lovely drink of the pleasant
vine." Of Melchisedech, according to whose order Christ,
and he only, was Priest, our own Sedulius writeth thus:
46
Melchisedech offered wine and bread to Abraham for a
figure of Christ offering his body and blood unto God his
Father upon the cross." Where note that, first, he saith
Melchisedech offered bread and wine to Abraham, not to
God; and secondly, that he was a figure of Christ offering
"
his body and blood upon the cross," not in the Eucharist.
But " we," saith 47 he, " do offer daily, for a commemora-
tion of the Lord's once" " and our own
passion, performed,
salvation." And elsewhere, expounding those words of our
Saviour, Do this in remembrance of me, he bringeth in
this similitude, used before and after him by others: " 48 He
left a memory of himself unto us, even as if one that were

going a far journey should leave some token with him whom
he loved, that as oft as he beheld it he might call to remem-
brance his benefits and friendship."
49
Claudius noteth that our Saviour's pleasure was, first

44 48
Sedul. Carm. Paschal, lib. iv. Suam memoriam nobis reliquit,
45
Triticeae sementis cibus suavis, et quemadmodum si quis peregre proficis-
iimcenae vitis potus amabilis. Id. Pros, cens aliquod pignus ei quern diligit dere-
lib. iv. cap. 14. linquat, ut quotiescunque illud viderit,
possit ejus beneficia et amicitias recordari.
46
Melchizedech vinum et panem obtu-
lit Abraham, in figuram Christi corpus Id. in 1 Cor. xi.
49 Voluit ante discipulis suis tradere sa-
et sanguinem suum Deo Patri in cruce
offerentis. Sedul. in Heb. v. cramentum corporis et sanguinis sui, quod
47
Nos vero in commemorationem Do- significavit in fractione corporis et effusio-
minicae semel passionis quotidie nostraeque ne calicis, et postea ipsum corpus immolari
salutis offerimus. Id. in Heb. x. in ara crucis. Claud, lib. iii. in Matt.
IV.]
OK Till'. WOKSHIl' OF GOD, 557

" unto Sacrament of bndv


to deliver his disciples the his
and blood, and afterwards to offer up the body itself upon
the altar of the cross." Where at the first sight I did

verily think, that in the words fractions corporis an error


had been committed in my transcript, corporis being mis-
written for
panis , but afterwards comparing it with the
original, whence I took my copy, I found that the author
50
retained the manner of speaking used both before and 51 after
his time, in giving the name of the thing signified unto
the sign, even there where the direct intention of the speech
was to distinguish the one from the other. For he doth
" the Sacrament of the
expressly distinguish body" which
was delivered unto the disciples, from " the body itself"
which was afterwards offered upon the cross; and for the
sacramental relation betwixt them both, he rendereth this
reason: " 52 Because bread doth confirm the body, and wine
doth work blood in the flesh, therefore the one is mystically
referred to the body of Christ, the other to his blood."
Which doctrine of his, Sacrament is in its own
that the
nature bread and wine, but the body and blood of Christ
by mystical relation, was in effect the same with that which
long afterwards was here in Ireland delivered by Henry
53 " the
Crump, the monk of Baltinglas, that body of Christ
in the Sacrament of the altar was only a looking-glass to the
body of Christ in heaven :" yea, and within fifty or three-
score years of the time of Claudius Scot us himself, was so

fully maintained by Johannes Scotus, in a book that he pur-


posely wrote of that
argument, when it was alleged that
and extolled by Berengarius, Pope Leo the Ninth, with
his Bishops, assembled in Synodo Vercellensi, Anno Domini

1050, which was 235 years after the time that Claudius
wrote his Commentaries upon St Matthew, had no other
means to avoid it but by flat M condemning of it. Of what
great esteem this John was with King Alfred, may be seen
50 53
See Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Quod corpus Christi in altaris sacra-
Ephraemius Antiochenus in the Answer mento est solum speculum ad corpus
to the Jesuit, p. 59, 60. Christi in ccelo. Ex Actis Willielmi
51
Apud Rathramnum, sive Bertra- Andreae Midensis Episcopi contra Henr.
mum, et Elfricum, passim. Crumpe, ann. 1384, quae MSta habeo.
52
Quia panis corpus confirmat, vinum 84
Johannis Scoti liber de Eucharistia
vero sanguinem operatur in carne; hie
lectus est ac damnatus. Lanfranc. de
ad corpus Christi mystice, illud refertur
Eucharist, contr. Berengar.
ad sanguinem. Id. ibid.
558 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

in William of Malmesbury, Roger Hoveden, Matthew of


Westminster, and other writers of the English history. The
king himself, in the preface before his Saxon translation
of St Gregory's Pastoral, professeth that he was
holpen
in that work by 55 John, his mass-priest.
By whom if he
did mean this John of ours, you may see how in those
days a man might be held a mass-priest, who was far enough
from thinking that he offered up the very body and blood
of Christ really present under the forms of bread and
wine ; which is the only Mass that our Romanists take
knowledge of.
Of which wonderful point how ignorant our elders were,
even this also may be one argument, that the author of
the book of the Wonderful Things of the Holy Scripture,
before alleged, passeth this quite over, which is now esteemed
to be the wonder of all wonders. And yet doth he profess,
that he " 56 purposed to pass over nothing of the wonders
of the Scripture, wherein they might seem notably to swerve
from the ordinary administration in other things."

CHAPTER V.

OF CHRISM, SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION, PENANCE, ABSOLUTION,


MARRIAGE, DIVORCES, AND SINGLE LIFE IN THE CLERGY.

THAT the Irish


T
did baptize their infants without any
consecrated Chrism, Lanfranc maketh complaint in his letters
to Terdeluacus, or Tirlagh, the chief king of that country.
And Bernard reporteth, that Malachias in his time, which
was after the days of Lanfranc and Pope Hildebrand, did
" 2
of the new institute the most wholesome use of confession,
the sacrament of confirmation, and the contract of mar-

55 Lanfranc.
Johanne minum maer-pe pfi&opp. mate consecrato baptizantur.
'

Alfred. Praefat. in Gregor. Pastoral. Epist. MS. in Bibliotheca Cottoniana ;

Saxonic. et apud Baron, ann. 1089, num. 16, ubi-


56
Praesertim cum ex mirabilibus scrip- tamen sive male habetur pro sine.
turaedominicae nil praeterire disposui, in
2
Usum saluberrimum confessionis, sa-
quibus a ministerio quotidiano excellere cramentum confirmationis, contractum
in aliis videntur. De Miiabilib. Scriptur. conjugiorum, quae omnia aut ignorabant
lib. ii.
cap. 21. aut negligebant, Malachias de novo in-
1
Quod infantes baptismo sine Chris- stituit. Bernard, in Vita Malachiae.
V.] OK CHRISM, SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION, &C. .~>~>\)

" either
riages ; all which," he saith, the Irish before were
1

ignorant of, or did neglect/" Which, for the matter of


Confession, may receive some further confirmation from the
testimony of Alcuinus, who, writing unto the Scottish, or,
as other copies read, the Gothish, and commending the
" in the midst
religious conversation of their laity, who
:i

of their worldly employments were said to lead a most chaste


life," condemneth notwithstanding another custom which
for u it is
4
was said to have continued in that country :

" that no man of the


said," quoth he, laity will make his
confession to the priests, whom we believe to have received
from the Lord Christ the power of binding and loosing
together with the holy Apostles."
They had no reason indeed to hold, as Alcuinus did,
that they ought to confess unto a priest all the sins they
could remember ; but upon special occasions they did, no
doubt, both publicly and privately make confession of their
faults, as well that they might receive counsel and direction

recovery, as that they might be made partakers


for their
of the benefit of the keys for the quieting of their troubled
consciences. Whatsoever the Gothish did herein, by whom
we are to understand the inhabitants of Languedoc in
France, where Alcuinus lived, sure we are that this was the
practice of the ancient Scottish and Irish. So we read of
one Fiachna or Fechnaus, that being touched with remorse
for some offence committed
by him, he fell at St Colme's
feet, lamented and " s confessed his sins before all
bitterly,
that were there present.*" Whereupon the holy man, weep-
ing together with him, is said to have returned this answer :

" 6 Rise and


up, son, be comforted; thy sins which thou hast
committed are forgiven ; because, as it is written, a contrite
and an humbled heart God doth not despise" We read
also of Adamnanus, that being very much terrified with

3 5
Inter mundanas occupationes castissi- Coram omnibus qui ibidem erant
mam vitam rationabili consideratione de- peccata sua confessus est. Adamnan.
gere dicuntur. Alcuin.Epist. xxvi.edit. Vit. Columb. lib. i. cap. 16, vel 20 in
H. Canisii, LXXI. Andreae Quercetani. MS.
Dicitur vero neminem ex laicis suam 6
et consolare .
dimissa sunt
ij
velle confessionem sacerdotibus
commisisdj pecc a m ina, quia,
dare;
t|U> qu{E
quos a Deo Christo cum sanctis apostolis
sicut scriptum est, Cor contritum et humi-
ligandi solvendique potestatem accepisse liatum Deus non spernit. Ibid.
credimus. Ibid.
560 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

the remembrance of a grievous sin committed by him in his


" 7 resorted unto a
youth, he priest, by whom he hoped the
way of salvation might be shewed unto him; he confessed
his guilt, and entreated that he would give him counsel,
flee from the wrath of God that was to
whereby he might
come."
Now commonly given unto the penitent after
the counsel
confession was, that he should
8 "
wipe away his sins by meet
fruits of repentance;" which course Bede observeth to have
been usually prescribed by our Cuthbert. For penances
were then exacted as testimonies of the sincerity of that
inward repentance, which was necessarily required for obtain-
ing remission of the sin and so had reference to the taking
;

away of the guilt, and not of the temporal punishment


remaining after the forgiveness of the guilt ; which is the
new-found use of penances invented by our later Romanists.
One old penitential Canon we find laid down in a Synod
held in country about the year of our Lord 450, by
this
St Patrick, Auxilius, and Isserninus, which is as followeth :

" 9 A Christian who hath killed a


man, or committed fornica-
tion, or gone unto a soothsayer after the manner of the Gen-
tiles, for every of those crimes shall do a year of penance :

when his year of penance is accomplished he shall come with


witnesses,and afterward he shall be absolved by the priest."
These Bishops did take order, we see, according to the

discipline generally used in those times, that the penance


should first be performed ; and when long and good proof
had been given by that means of the truth of the party's
repentance, they wished the priest to impart unto him the
benefit of Absolution. Whereas by the new device of sacra-
mental penance, the matter is now far more easily transacted ;
by virtue of the keys the sinner is instantly of attrite made
contrite., and thereupon as soon as he hath made his con-

7 9
Accedens ad sacerdotem, a quo sibi Christianus qui occiderit, aut forni-

sperabat iter salutis posse demonstrari, cationem fecerit, aut more Gentilium ad

confessus est reatum suum, petiitque ut aruspicem meaverit, per singula crimina
consilium sibi daret, quo posset fugere a annum poenitentiae agat ; impleto cumtes-
ventura Dei ira. Bed. Histor. lib. iv. tibus veniat anno pcenitentiae, et postea

cap. 25. resolvetur a sacerdote. Synod. Patricii,


8
Confessa dignis, ut imperabat, pceni- Auxilii et Issernini MS. in Bibliotheca
tentiae fructibus abstergerent. Id. ibid, Collegii Benedict. Cantabrig.
cap. 27.
V. OF CHRISM, SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION, 561

fession he presently receiveth his absolution


; after this some

sorry penance imposed, whichis


upon better consideration

may be converted into pence; and so a quick end is made


of many a foul business.
But for the right use of the keys we fully accord with
Claudius, that
" 10
the office" of remitting and retaining sins
which was given unto the Apostles, " is now in the bishops
and priests committed unto every church namely, that :

having taking knowledge of the causes of such as have sinned,


as many as they shall behold humble and truly penitent,
those they may now with compassion absolve from the fear
of everlasting death ; but such as they shall discern to per-
sist in the sins which
they have committed, those they may
1'
declare to be bound over unto never-ending punishments.
And in thus absolving such as be truly penitent, we willingly
" remit sins after"
yield that the pastors of God^s Church do
their manner, that is to say, ministerially and improperly;
so that the privilege of forgiving sins properly and
absolutely
be still reserved unto God alone. Which is at large set
out by the same Claudius, where he expoundeth the history
of the man sick of the palsy that was cured by our Saviour,
in the ninth of St Matthew: for, following Bede upon
he writeth thus: " u The scribes say true, that
that place,
none can forgive sins but God alone; who also forgiveth
by them to whom he hath given the power of forgiving.
And therefore is Christ proved to be truly God, because he
forgiveth sins as God. They render a true testimony unto
God ; but in denying the person of Christ they are deceived."
And " 12
If be God
again, it that, according to the Psalmist,

10
Necnon etiam nunc in episcopis ac dimittere peccata quasi Deus potest. Ve-
presbyteris omni ecclesiae officium idem rum Deo testimonium reddunt ; sed per-
committitur ;
ut videlicet agnitis peccan- sonam Christi negando falluntur. Id. in
tium causis, quoscunque humiles ac vere Matth. lib. i.

pocnitentes aspexerint, hos jam a timore 12


Si et Deus est, juxta Psalmistam,
perpetuae mortis miserantes absolvant;
qui quantum distal oriens ab occasu elon-
quos vero in peccatis quae egerint persi- gavit a nobis iniquitates nostras, et Filius
stere cognoverint,illos perennibus sup-
hominis potestatem habet in terra dimit-
pliciis obligandos insinuent. Claud, in tendi peccata; ergo idem ipse et Deus
Matth. lib. ii
et filius hominis ut et homo Christus
est,
11
Verum dicunt scribae, quia nemo di-
per divinitatis suae potentiam peccata di-
mittere peccata nisi solus Deus potest;
mittere possit ; et idem Deus Christus per
qui per eos quoque dimittit, quibus di- humanitatis suae fragilitatem pro pecca-
mittendi tribuit potestatem. Et ideo
toribus mori. Ibid.
Christus vere Deus esse probatur, quia
NN
562 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

removeth our sins as far from us as the east is distant from


the west, and the Son of man hath power upon earth to

forgive sins therefore he himself is both God and the Son


,

of man : man
Christ might, by the power of
that both the
his and
divinity, forgive sins
; the same Christ, being God,

might, by the frailty of his humanity, die for sinners." And


out of St Jerome: " 13 Christ sheweth himself to be God,
who can know the hidden things of the heart, and after a
sort holding his peace he speak eth, By the same majesty
aud power whereby I behold your thoughts, I can also for-
give sins unto men." In like manner doth the author of
the book of the Wonderful Things of the Scripture observe
these "
u divine works" in the same " the
history; forgiving
of sins, the present cure of the disease, and the answering
of the thoughts by the mouth of God who searcheth all
things." With whom, for the property of beholding the
secret thoughts, Sedulius also doth concur in those sentences :

" 15
God alone can know
the hidden things of men." " 16 To
know the hearts of men, and to discern the secrets of their
mind, is the privilege of God alone."
That the Contract of Marriages was either unknown or
neglected by the Irish before Malachias did institute the
same anew among them, as Bernard doth seem to intimate,
17
is a
thing almost incredible; although Giraldus Cambren-
sis doth complain, that the case was little better with them

after the time of Malachias also. The licentiousness of


those ruder times, I know, was such as may easily induce
us to believe that a great both neglect and abuse of God's
ordinance did get footing among this people which enor- :

mities Malachias, no doubt, did labour to reform, and


withal, peradventure, brought in some new matters not

13
Ostendit se Deum, qui potest cordis 15
Deus solus potest occulta hominum
occulta cognoscere; et quodammodo ta- I scire. Rom. ii.
Sedul. in
cens loquitur Eadem majestate et poten-
:
16
Corda hominum nosse
solius Deiest,

tia qua cogitationes vestras intueor, pos- etmentis secreta agnoscere. Id. ibid,
17 Nondum decimas vel
sum et hominibus delicta dimittere. Ibid. !

primitias sol-
14 In paralytico a quatuor viris portato, I vunt ; nondum matrimonia contrahunt ;

quatuor divina opera cernuntur. Dum non incestus vitant. Girald. Camb. To-
dimittuntur ei peccata, et praesentis aegri- pograph. Hibern. Distinct. HI. cap. 19.
tudinis plaga verbo tune solvitur, et cogi- Vide etiam Lanfranci Epist. ad Go-
tationibus in ore Dei omnia scrutantis thricum et Terdeluacum reges Hibern.

respondetur. Auct. lib. de Mirabilib. S. apud Baronium, ann. 1089, num. 13


et Ifi.
Scriptur. lib. iii.
cap. 7
OK CirUrs.M, SACRAMENTAL COM I.SSlOX,

known here before, as he was very desirous his countrymen


should generally conform themselves unto the traditions and
customs of the Church of Rome. But our purpose is here
only to deal with the doctrine and practice of the elder
times ; in which, first, that marriage was not held to be a
18
Sacrament, may be collected from Sedulius, who reckoneth
"
among those things which are gifts indeed, but not
it

spiritual."
Secondly, For the degrees of consanguinity hindering
marriage, the Synod attributed unto St Patrick seemeth to
refer us wholly unto the Levitical law,
prescribing therein
" 19
neither less nor more than the law speaketh ;" and par-
ticularly against matching with " the wife of the deceased
brother," which was the point so much questioned in the
case of King Henry the Eighth, this 2 "Synodical decree is
" The brother
there urged :
may not ascend into the bed
of his deceased brother, the Lord having said, They two
shall be one flesh. Therefore the wife of thy brother is
thy sister." Whereupon we find also, that our Kilianus
21
did suffer martyrdom for dissolving such an incestuous
marriage in Gozbertus, Duke of Franconia; and that Cle-
mens Scotus, for maintaining the contrary, was both by
*3
^Boniface, Archbishop of Mentz, and the Council held at
Rome by Pope Zachary in the year 745, condemned as a
bringer in of Judaism amongst Christians. Yet how far this
condemned opinion of his prevailed afterward in this country,
and how foul a crime it was esteemed to be by others
abroad, notwithstanding the Pope doth now by his bulls
of dispensation take upon him to make a fair matter of it,

18 Huca-
Videtur indicarc. esse aliquid quod cerdotali Egberti Archiepisc. per
donum quidem sit, non tamen spirituale, rium Levitam. MS.
ut nuptia?. Sedul. in Rom. i. 21
Vit. Kiliani, Tom. iv. Antiqu. Lect.
19
De consanguinitate in conjugio. In-
Henr. Canisii, 633 and 644.
p.
telligite quid lex loquitur, non minus nee 22
Judaismum inducens, judicat justum
plus. Quod autem observatur apud nos,
ut quatuor genera dividantur ; nee vidisse
esse Christiano, ut si voluerit viduam
dicunt nee legisse.
fratris defuncti accipiat uxorem. Boni-
Synod. Patric. cap.
MS. fac. Epist. ad Zachar. Tomo in. Concil.
29,
20
Audi decreta Synodi super istis. part. i. p. 382, edit. Colon, ann. 1618.

Frater torum defuncti fratris non ascen- 23


Inferens Christianis Judaismum,
dat, Domino dicente, Erunt duo in came dum praedicat fratris defuncti accipere
una. Ergo uxor fratris tui soror tua est. uxorem. Concil. Roman, n. sub Zachar.
Ibid. cap. 2o, et in excerptis e Jure Sa- ibid. p. 383. e.

N
564 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

may easily be perceived by this censure of Giraldus:


" 24 " which and most
Moreover," saith he, is
very detestable,
contrary only not to the common
faith, but also unto

honesty, brethren in many places throughout Ireland do,


I
say not marry, but mar rather and seduce the wives of
their deceased brothers, while in this sort they filthily and
incestuously have knowledge of them; cleaving herein not
to the marrow, but to the bark of the Old Testament, and
desiring to imitate the ancient in vices more willingly than
in virtues."

Thirdly, Touching Divorces, we read in Sedulius, that


" is not lawful,
^it according to the precept of our Lord,
that the wife should be put away but for the cause of for-
nication." And in the to St Patrick, " 26
Synod ascribed It
is not lawful for a man to put away his wife but for the
cause of fornication. As if he should say, for this cause""
he may. " Whence if he marry another, as -it were after
the death of the former, they forbid it not." Who they
were that did not forbid this second marriage, is not there
expressed. That St Patrick himself was of another mind,
would appear by this constitution following, which in another
ancient Canon book I found cited under his name " 27 If :

any man's wife have committed adultery with another man,


he shall not marry another wife as long as the first wife
shail be alive. If peradventure she be converted, and do

penance, he shall receive her, and she shall serve him in


the place of a maid-servant. Let her for a whole year do
penance in bread and water, and that by measure; neither
let them remain in the same bed together."

24 26 uxorem
Quinimo, quod valde detestabile est, Non licet viro dimittere nisi
et non tantum fidei, sed et cuilibet hones- ob causam fornicationis ; ac si dicat, ob
tati valde contrarium, fratres pluribus per hanc causam. Unde si ducat alteram,
Hiberniam locis fratrum defunctorum velut post mortem pridris, non vetant.
uxores, non dico ducunt, sed tradueunt, Synod. Patric. cap. 26, MS.
imo verius seducunt, dum turpiter eas 27 Si alicujus uxor fornicata fuerit cum
et tarn incestuose
cognoscunt ; veteris in alio non adducet all am uxorem
viro,
hoc testament! non medullae sed cortici fuerit uxor prima.
quamdiu viva Si forte
adhfcrentes, veteresque libentius in vitiis conversa fuerit, et agat poenitentiam, sus-
quam virtutibus imitari volentes. Girald. cipiet earn, et serviet ei in vicem ancilla? ;
Camb. Topograph. Hibern. Distinct, iii. et annum integrum in pane et aqua per
cap. 19. mensuram pceniteat ; nee in uno lecto per-
25
Non licet secundum
praeceptum maneant. Ex libro Canonum Cottoni-
Domini ut dimittatur conjux, nisi causa LXVI.
ano, titulorum
fornicationis. Sedul. in 1 Cor. vii.
OF CHRISM, SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION, &C. 565

Fourthly, Concerning Single Life, I do not find in any


of our records that it was generally imposed upon the clergy,
but the contrary rather. For in the Synod held by St Pa-
trick, Auxilius, and Isserninus, there is a special order taken
as
that their wives shall not walk abroad with their heads
uncovered. And St Patrick himself confesseth, at least-
wise the confession which goeth under his name saith so,
and Probus, Jocelinus, and others that write his life, agree
therewith, that he ^had to his father Calphurnius, a deacon,
and to his grandfather Potitus, a priest. For that was
no new thing then among the Britons, whose bishops there-
fore Gildas doth reprehend, as for the same cause he did
the chief of the laity, that they were not content to be the
husbands of one, but of many wives, and that they cor-
" ^the
rupted their children by their evil example; whereas
chastity of the Fathers was to be esteemed imperfect, if the
chastity of their sons were not added thereunto."
Nennius, the eldest historiographer of the Britons which
we have after him, who in many copies also beareth his
own name, wrote that book which we have extant of his
to "
31
Samuel the child of Benlanus the priest, his master ;""
counting it a grace rather than any kind of disparagement
unto him to be esteemed the son of a learned priest. Which
32
maketh him, in the verses prefixed before the work, to say,

33
Christc, tribuisti patri Samuelem, Leeta matre.

But about 60 or 70 years after I find some partial eclipse

here, and the first, I think, of this kind that can be shewed

among the Britons, in the laws of Howel Dha; where it is

28 31
Quicunque clericis, ab ostiario usque Sic inveni ut tibi Samuel, infans
ad sacerdotem, sine tunica visus fuerit, magistri mei Benlani presbyteri, in ista
&c. et uxor ejus si non velato capite am- pagina scripsi. Nennius in MSto Du-
bulaverit pariter a laicis contenmentur,
; nelmensi.
et ab ecclesia separentur. Synod. Patric.
38
Versus Nennii ad Samuelem filium
Auxil. Issernin.
29 magistri sui Benlani, viri religiosi, ad
Patremhabui Calpornium diaconum,
quern historiam istam scripserat. Nenn.
filium quondam Potiti presbyteri. S.
MS. in Publica Cantabrigiensis Academiae
Patricii Confessio. MS.
30 Bibliotheca.
Imperfectaest patrum castitas, si eidem
33
non et filiorum accumuletur. Sed quid erit,
Hinc apud Balaeum, Centur. i. cap.
ubi nee pater, nee filius mali genitoris ex- 77. Benlani presbyteri conjux Laeta est
nominata.
cmplo pravatus, conspicitur castus ? Gild.
566 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

M if a clerk of a lower
ordered, that degree should, match
with a woman and have a son by her, and that clerk after-
ward, having received the order of priesthood, should have
another son by the same woman, the former son should enjoy
his father's whole estate, without being bound to divide the
same with his other brother. Yet these marriages for all
that were so held out, that the fathers, not content their
sons should succeed them in their temporal estate alone,

prevailed so far that they continued them in the succession


of their spiritual promotions also which abuse Giraldus :

Cambrensis 35 complaineth to have been continued in Wales


unto his time, and out of 36 Hildebertus Cenomanensis
sheweth to have prevailed in little Britain also; whence he
inferreth,
3T
that " this vice was of old common to the whole
British nation, as well on this side as on the other side of
the sea.*" Whereunto for Ireland also we may add the
letters written by Pope Innocent the Third unto Johannes
38
Salernitanus the Cardinal, his legate, for abolishing the
custom there, whereby sons and grandchildren did use to
succeed their fathers and grandfathers in their ecclesiastical
benefices.

34
Si clericus haberet fceminam datam thedralibus, verumetiam atfeo per totam
a suo genere, et sic habet filium ex ea, in clero, sicut et in populo, Walliam perti-
et postea ille clericus presbyteratus ordi- naciter invaluit ; quod et post patres filii

nem accipiens, si post votum consecratio- passim ecclesiaset consequenter obtineant,


nis filium haberet de eadem foemina, tanquam haereditate possideutes et pollu-

prior filius non debet partiri cum filio entes sanctuarium Dei, &c. Id. in Dialogo
post nato. Ex Legib. Howel Dha, MS. de Ecclesia Menevensi, Distinct, i. MS.
36
in Bibliotheca Cottoniana. Hildebert. Epist. LXV. ad Hono-
35
Successive et post patres filii eccle- rium ii. (Tomo xn. Biblioth. Patr.
sias obtinent, non elective sed hsereditate part. i. p. 338, 339, edit. Colon.)
possidentes et polluentes sanctuarium Dei, Ex quibus constare potest, utrumque
37

quia, si praelatus alium eligere et instituere vitium tod huic gcnti Britannias tarn cis-
forte prsesumpserit, in instituentem pro- marinaequam transmarinae ab antique
culdubio, vel institutum, genus injuriam commune fuisse. trirald. Camb. in utro-
vindicabit. Girald. Cambrensis rescript .
que.
38
Cambriae, libro xx. MS. Successions Alphons. Ciacon. in Vitis Pontificum
quippe vitium non solum in sedibus ca- et Cardinalium, p. 515.
OF THE DISCIPLINE OK OUR ANVIKXT MO\K->.

CHAPTER VI.

OF THE DISCIPLINE OF OUK ANCIENT MONKS, AND AB8T1M NC 1

FROM MEATS.

WHAT hath been said of the married clergy concerneth


the seculars, and not the regulars, whereof there was a
" Almost all
very great number in Ireland; because here
the prelates were wont to be chosen into the clergy out of
monasteries." For our monasteries in ancient time were the
seminaries of the ministry, being as it were so many colleges
of learned divines, whereunto the people did usually resort
for instruction, and from whence the Church was wont con-

tinually to be supplied with able ministers. The benefit


whereof was not only contained within the limits of this
island, but did extend itself to foreign countries likewise.
For this was drew 2
Egbert and Ceadda, for example,
it that
into Ireland, that " lead a monastical life
they might there
in prayers and and meditation of the holy Scrip-
continency,
tures :" and hence were those famous monasteries planted in

England by Aidan, Finan, Colman, and others, unto which


" 3 the
people flocked apace on the Lord's day, not for the
feeding of their body, but for the learning of the word of
God," as Bede witnesseth. Yea, this was the principal means
whereby the knowledge both of the Scriptures and of all
other good learning was preserved in that inundation of
barbarism, wherewith the whole West was in a manner over-
whelmed. "Hitherto," saith 4 Curio, "it might seem that

4
1
Fere omnes Hiberniae praelati de mo- Hactenus videri poterat actum esse
nasteriis in clerum elect! sunt. Girald. cum sapientiae studiis, nisi semen Deus
Cambren. Topograph. Hibern. Distinct. servasset in aliquo mundi angulo. In
in. cap. 29. Scotis et Hibernis hacserat aliquid adhuc
2
Egbertus cum Ceadda adolescente et de doctrina cognitionis Dei et honestatis
ipse adolescens in Hibemia monastic-am civilis ; quod nullus fuerit in uhimis illis

in orationibus et continentia et meditatio- mundi finibus armorum terror, &c. Et


ne divinarum scripturarum vitam sedulus summam possumus ibi conspicere et ado-
agebat. Bed. Hist. lib. iv. cap. 3. rare Dei bonitatem ; quod in Scotis, et
3
Sed et diebus Dominicis ad ecclesiam locis ubi nemo putasset, tarn numerosi
sive ad monasteria certatim, non reficiendi coaluerint sub stru-tissima disciplina
corporis, sed erudiendi sermonis Dei gra- eirtus. Jacob. Curio, lib. ii. - Rerum
tia confluebant. Id. lib. iii. cap. 2K. Chronologic.
568 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

the studies of wisdom should quite have perished, unless


God had reserved a seed in some corner of the world.
Among the Scottish and the Irish something as yet remained
of the doctrine of the knowledge of God and of civil honesty ;
because there was no terror of arms in those utmost ends
of the world. And we may there behold and adore the great

goodness of God, that among the Scots, and in those places


where no man would have thought it, so many great companies
should be gathered together under a most strict discipline."
How strict their discipline was, may appear partly by
the Rule, and partly by the Daily Penances of Monks,
which are yet extant of Columbanus^s writing. In the latter
of these, for the disobedience of monks these penances are
" 5 If
prescribed any brother be disobedient," he shall fast
:

" two
days, with one biscuit and water. If any say, I will
not do it, three days with one biscuit and water. If any
murmur, two days with one biscuit and water. If any do
not ask leave or tell an excuse, two days with one biscuit
and water ;" and so in other particulars. In his Rule,
these good lessons doth he give unto his monks, among
" 6 it
many others That :
profited them little if they were
virgins in body, and were not virgins in mind :" that they
" 7 should
daily profit as they did daily pray and daily
read:" that " 8 the good things of the Pharisee being vainly
praised, were lost, and the sins of the publican being ac-
cused, vanished away ; and therefore that a great word should
not come out of the mouth of a monk, lest his great labour
should perish." They were not taught to vaunt of their
state of perfection and works of supererogation, or to argue
from thence, as Celestius the Pelagian monk sometime did,
that " by the nature of their free-will they had such a
9

5 7
Si quis frater inobediens fuerit, duos Quotidie proficiendum est, sicut quo-
dies uno paxmate et aqua. Si quis dicit, tidie orandum, quotidieque est legendum.
Non faciam, tres dies uno paxmate et aqua. Ibid. cap. 5.
8
Si quis murmurat, duos dies uno paxmate Bona vane laudata Pharisaei perie-
et aqua. Si quis veniam non petit, aut runt, et peccata publicani accusata evanue-
dicit excusationem, duos dies uno paxmate runt. Non exeat igitur verbum grande de
et aqua. Columban. lib. de Quotidianis ore monachi, ne suus grandis pereat labor.
Pcenitentiis Monachor. cap. 10, MS. in Ibid. cap. 7-
9 Tantam nos habere per naturam liberi
monasterio S. Galli.
Quid prodest, si virgo corpore sit, et arbitrii non peccandi possibilitatem, ut
non sit virgo mcntc ? Id. in Regula Mo- plus etiam quam praeceptum est facia-
nachor. cap. 8. mus; quoniara perpetua servatur a pleris-
VI.J OF THE DISCIPLINE OF OUR ANCIENT MONKS. 569

possibility of not sinning, that they were able also to do


more than was commanded ; because they did observe per-
petual virginity, which is not commanded, whereas for not
sinning it is sufficient to fulfil the precepts." It was one
of the points which Gallus, the scholar of Colurnbanus,
delivered in his sermon preached at Constance, that our
Saviour " 10
did so persuade the Apostles and their followers
to lay hold
upon the good of virginity, that yet they should
know was not of human industry, but of divine gift.""
it

And a good observation which we read in Claudius,


it is

that " "not


only in the splendour of bodily things, but also
abasing of one's self, there may be boasting;
in mournful
and that so much the more dangerous, as it deceiveth under
the name of the service of God."
Our monks were religious indeed, and not in name only ;
far from the hypocrisy, pride, idleness, and uncleanness, of
those evil beasts and slothful bellies that afterward succeeded
in their room. Under colour of forsaking all, they did not
hook all unto themselves, nor under semblance of devotion
did they devour widows'* houses: they held begging to be
no point of perfection, but 12 remembered the words of our
Lord Jesus, how he said, It is a more blessed thing to
give rather than to take. When King Sigebert made large
offers unto Columbanus and his companions to keep them
within his dominions in France, he received such another
answer from them as 13 Thaddaeus, in the Ecclesiastical His-
tory, is said to have given unto Abgarus, the governor of
Edessa: " I4 We who have forsaken our own, that according
to the commandment of the Gospel we might follow the

Lord, ought not to embrace other men's riches, lest per-


adventure we should prove transgressors of the divine

que virginitas, quae praecepta non est, cum quo sub nomine servitutis Dei decipit.
ad non peccandum praecepta implere suf- Claud, lib. i. in Matt
12
ficiat. Aug. de Gestis Synod. PalaDStin. Acts xx. 35.
13
contra Pelag. cap. 13. iras
10
.Ipsis Apostolis et eorum sequacibus ra ctAAoTyna XijtyofieQa ;
Kuseb. Histor.
ita bonum virginitatis arripiendum per- lib. i. cap. ult.
14
suasit, ut hoc scirent non humanae indus- Qui nostr;i reliquimus, ut secundum
triae, sed muneris essc divini. S. Gallus, evangelicam jussionem Dominum seque-
in Senn. habit. Constant.
remur, non debemus alicnas amplecti divi-
1 '
Non in solo rerum corporearum nitore, tias ; ne forte praevaricatores simua divini
sed etiam in ipsis sordibus luctuosis essc mandati. Walafriil. Strab. Vit. Galli,
posse jactantiam; et co periculosiorem, lib. i.
cap. 2.
570 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

commandment." How then did these men live? will you

say. Walafridus Strabus telleth us, that " 15


some of them
wrought in the garden, others dressed the orchard, Gallus
made nets 11 and took fish, wherewith he not only relieved
his own company, but was helpful also unto strangers. So
Bede reporteth of Cuthbert, that when he retired himself
unto an anchoretical life, he " 1G first indeed received a little
bread from his brethren to feed upon, and drank out of his
own well, but afterwards he thought it more fit to live by
the work of his own hands, after the example of the fathers ;
and therefore entreated that instruments might be brought
him wherewith he might till the earth, and corn that he
might sow."
17
Quique suis cupiens victum conquirere palmis,
Incultam pertentat humum proscindere ferro,
Et sator edomitis anni spem credere glebis.

The like doth he relate of and Bonifacius 18


Furseus,
19
of Livinus, and Theodorus Campidonensis, or whosoever
else wrote that book, of 20 Gallus, Magnoaldus, and the rest
of the followers of Columbanus, that they got their living

by the labour of their own hands. And the ^Apostle's


rule is
generally laid down for all monks, in the Life of
" work
Furseus: ^They which live in monasteries should
with silence, and eat their own bread"
But now there is started up a new generation of men,
that refuse to eat their own bread, and count it a high
point of sanctity to live by begging of other men's bread,
if yet the course they take may rightly be termed begging.
For, as Richard Fitz-Ralph, that famous Archbishop of
Armagh, objected to their faces, before the Pope himself
15
Alii hortum laboraverunt, alii arbores Vit. Cuthbert. Pros. cap. 19. Vide Hist.
pomiferas excoluerunt; B. vero Gallus Eccles. lib.iv. cap. 28.

texebat retia, &c. et de eodem labore assi- 17 Id. in Carm. de Vit. Cuthbert. cap.
duas populo benedictiones exhibuit. Ibid, 17.
18
cap. 6. Id. Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. cap. 19.
16 19
Et primum quidem perrnodicum ab Bonifac. in Vita Livini, p. 240.
20 Theod. Campid. Vit, Magni,
eis panem, quo vesceretur, accipiebat, ac lib. i.

suo bibebat e fonte ; postmodum vero pro- cap. 5, edit. Goldasti, 6 Canisii.
prio manuum labore juxta exempla patrum
21
2 Thess. iii. 12.
22 in monasteriis degunt,cum si-
vivere magis aptum ducebat. Rogavit Qui
ergo afferri sibi instrumenta quibus terrain lentio operantes suum panem manducent.
exerceret, et triticum quod sereret. Bed. Vit, Fursei.
V,.] OF THE DISCIPLINE OF OUR ANCIENT MONKS.

*3
and his cardinals in his time, (and the matter is little

amended, I wis, in ours), u


scarce could any great or mean
man of the clergy or the laity eat his meat, but such kind
of beggars would be at his elbow ; not like other poor folks,

humbly craving alms at the gate or the door


(as Francis
did command and teach them
his testament) by begging, in
but without shame intruding themselves into courts or houses,
and lodging there, where, without any inviting at all, they
eat and drink what
they do find among them ; and not
with that content, carry away with them either wheat, or
meal, or bread, or flesh, or cheeses, although there were
but two in an house, in a kind of an extorting manner,
there being none that can deny them, unless he would cast

away natural shame."


This did that renowned primate, whose anniversary
memory is still celebrated in Dundalk, where he was born
and buried, by the name of St Richard, publicly deliver in
the year Consistory of Avignon ; where he
1357? at the

stoutly maintained, against the whole rabble of the friars,


what he had preached the year before at Paul's Cross unto the
" 24
That our Lord Jesus
people; namely, Christ, although
in his human conversation " 25he was
poor," yet always
did he never voluntarily beg himself," " ^nor taught others
so to do," " 27 but taught the plain contrary :" and " 28 That

83
Jam enim istis in temporibus non mana semper pauper erat, non quia prop-
poterat magnus aut mediocris in clero et ter se paupertatem dilexit aut voluit. Ibid,
populo aut vix cibum sumere, ubi tales p. 104, 105.
non affuerunt mendicantes ; non more 25
Secunda conclusio erat, quod Domi-
pauperum petentes ad portas vel ostia nus noster Jesus Christus nunquam spon-
humiliter eleemosynam (ut Franciscus in tanee mendicavit. Ibid. p. 107-
testamento praecepit et docuit) mendican-
26
do ; sed curias sive domos sine verecundia
Tertia conclusio fuit, quod Christus
nunquam docuit spontanee mendicare.
penetrantes, et inibi hospitantes, nulla-
Ibid. p. 121.
tenus invitati, edunt et bibunt, quae apud
eos reperiunt, secum nihilominus aut gra-
27
Quarta conclusio fuit, quod Dominus
noster Jesus Christus docuit non debere
na, aut similam, aut panes, aut carnes, seu
homines mendicare. Ibid,
caseos, etiamsi in domo non fuerint nisi
spontanee

duo, secum extorquendo reportant; nee p. 123.


28
eisquisquam poterit denegare, nisi vere- Quinta conclusio erat, quod nullus
cundiam naturalem abjiciat. Rich. Ar- potest prudenter et sancte spontaneam
machanus, in Defensorio Curatorum, p. 56, mendicitatem super se assumere perpetuo
57, edit. Paris, ann. 1625, collat. cum ve- asservandam, quoniam ex quo talis men-
tere editione Ascensiana. dicitas vel mendicatio est dissuasa a Chris-
24 Prima conclusio erat, quod Dominus to, a suis apostolis et discipulis, ct ab
Jesus Christus in conversatione sua hu- ecclesia ac sacris Scripturis, ac ctiam re-
572 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

no man could prudently and holily take upon himself the


perpetual observation of voluntary beggary; forasmuch as
such kind of begging, as well by Christ as
by his Apostles
and disciples, by the Church and by the holy Scriptures,
was both dissuaded and also reproved."
His countryman Henry Crump, a monk of the Cister-
cian order in Baltinglas, not long after, treading in his

steps, was accused for delivering in his determinations at


" 29 the friars of the four Mendicant orders are
Oxford, that
not nor ever were instituted by God^s inspiration; but that
contrary to the general Council of Lateran, held under
Innocent the Third," which prohibited the bringing in of
" and
any more* new religious orders into the Church, by
feigned and false dreams, Pope Honorius,
being persuaded
by the friars, did confirm them ;" and ^that " all the
doctors which did determine for the friars'* side were either
afraid speak the truth, lest their books should be con-
to
demned by the friars that had gotten to be inquisitors, or
said, As it seemeth, or proceeded only by way of disputa-
tion, and not of determination ; because if they had spoken
the truth plainly in the behalf of the Church, the friars
would have persecuted them, as they did persecute the holy
doctor Armachanus." Which Crump himself found after-
wards to be too true by his own experience; for he was
forced to deny and abjure these assertions in the house of
the Carmelite Friars at Stanford, before William Courtney,

Archbishop of Canterbury, and then silenced, that he should


not exercise publicly any act in the schools, either by read-

ing, preaching, disputing, or determining, until he should


have a special licence from the said Archbishop so to do.
But to leave the begging friars, being a kind of crea-

probata, consequitur quod non potest pru- in Thomae "Waldensis Fasciculo Zizanio-
denter et sancte assumi hoc modo. Ibid, rum, quern MSum habeo.
30
p. 131. Vide ejusd. Richardi Sernionem Quod omnes doctores determinantes
in. apud Crucem Londin. edit. Paris, pro parte fratrum e capitulo Dudum, vel
ann. 1512. timuerunt veritatem dicere, ne eorum libri
29
Quod fratres de quatuor ordinibus per fratres inquisitores haereticae pravitatis
Mendicantium non sunt nee fuerunt Do- damnarentur ; vel dixerunt, Ut videtur ;
mino inspirante institute ; sed contra Con- vel solum disputative processerunt ; quia

cilium generale Lateranense sub Innocen- si plane veritatem pro ecclesia dixissent,
tio Tertio celebratum, ac per ficta et falsa
persecuti cos fuissent fratres, sicut perse-
somnia, Papa Honorius suasus a fratribus quebantur sanctum doctorem Armacha-
eos confirmavit, Act. contra Hen. Crump, num. Ibid.
V,.] OF THE DISCIPLINE OF OUR ANCIENT MONKS. 573

lures unknown
to the Church for twelve hundred
years
after and to return to the labouring monks. We
Christ,
find it related of our Brendan, that he " 31 governed three
thousand such monks, who by their own labours and handy-
work did earn their living:" which agreeth well with that
" ^A monk
saying ascribed to him by the writer of his Life :

ought to be fed and clothed by the labour of his own


hands." Neither was there any other order observed in that
famous monastery of Bangor, among the Britons, " ^wherein
there said to have been so great a number of monks, that
is

the monastery being divided into seven portions, together


with the rectors appointed over them, none of all those
portions had less than three hundred persons in them ; all
" were wont to live
which," saith Bede, by the labour of
their own hands." From the destruction of which monastery
unto the erection of Tuy Gwyn, or White-house, which is
said to have been about the year 1146, the setter-forth of
s4
the Welsh Chronicle observeth, that there were no abbeys
among the Britons.
Here in Ireland Bishop Colman founded the monastery
of Magio, in the ^county of Limerick, for the entertain-
ment of the English, where they " 36 did live according to
the example of the reverend Fathers," as Bede writeth,
" under a rule and a canonical abbot, in
great continency
and sincerity, with the labour of their own hands." Like
whereunto was the monastery of Mailros also, planted by
Bishop Aidan and his followers in Northumberland, where
St Cuthbert had his education, who affirmed that " 37 the
life of such monks was justly to be admired, which were

31 34
Tribus monachorum, qui suis sibi Chronicle of Wales, p. 253, 254.
ipsi laboribus victum manibus operando 36
Vide Annal. Hibem. a Camdeno edit,
suppeditabant, milJibus pnrfuisse credi- ad ann. 1370.
tur. Nicol. Harpsfield. Histor. Eccles.
lib. i. cap. 25.
36
Ad exemplum venerabilium Patrum,
Angl.
sub regula et abbate canonico, in magna
32 Monachum oportet labore manuum
continentia et sinceritate proprio labore
suarum vesci et vestiri. Vit. S. Brendani.
83In quo tantus fertur ftiisse numerus
manuum vivunt. Bed. Hist. Ecclesiast.
lib. iv. cap. 4.
monachorum, ut cum in septem portiones
mo- 37
esset cum praepositis sibi rectoribus Jure, inquit, est comobitarum vita
nasterium divisum, nulla harum portio miranda, qui abbatis per omnia subjiciun-
minus quam trecentos homines haberet, tur imperiis, ad ejus arbitrium cuncta

qui omnes de labore manuum suarum vigilandi, orandi, jejunandi, atque ope-
vivere solebant. Bed. Histor. Ecclesiast. randi tempora moderantur. Bed^ Vit.
lib. ii. cap. 2. Cuthbert. Pros. cap. 22.
574 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

in all
things subject to the commands of their abbot, and
ordered all the times of their
watching, praying, fasting,
and working, according to his direction:"
38
Excubiasque, famemque, preces, manuumque laborem
Ad votum gaudent proni frsenare regentis.

As (for of their watching and praying


for their fasting,
there no question made, and of their working we have
is

already spoken sufficiently), by the Rule of Columbanus


" 39
they were every day to fast and every day to eat," that
this means "
40
by the of them for their enabling spiritual
proficiency might be retained, together with the abstinence
that did macerate the flesh." He would therefore have them
41
ever y d av to eat, because they were every day to profit,"
and because " 42 abstinence, if it did exceed measure, would
prove a vice and not a virtue." And he would have them
to fast every day too, that is, not to eat any meat at all

(for other fasts were not known in those days) until even-
"
Let the food of monks," saith he, be " mean, and
43
ing.
taken at evening, flying satiety and excess of drink, that it
may both sustain them and not hurt them." This was the
" "
daily fasting" and feeding" of them that lived according
to Columbanus''s Rule, although the strictness of the fast
seemeth to have been kept on Wednesdays and Fridays only,
which were the days of the week wherein the ancient Irish,
agreeable to the custom of the Grecian rather than the
Roman Church, were wont to observe abstinence both from
44
meat and from the marriage-bed. Whence in the book
before alleged, of the Daily Penance of Monks, we find
this order set down by the same Columbanus, that " 45
if

38
Id. Carm. cap. 20. ebrietatem, ut et sustineat et non noceat.
39
Quotidie jejunandum est, sicut quo- Ibid.
Columb. Regul. 44
tidie reficiendum est. Synodus Hibemiensium dicit : In
cap. 5. tribus quadragesimis anni, in die Domi-
40 haec est vera discretio, ut pos- nico et in quarta feria et sexta, conjugales
Quia
sibilitas spiritualis profectus cum absti- continere se debent. Canonum Collectio,
nentia carnem macerante retentetur. Ibid. cujus initium, Sancta Synodus bis in anno
41
Ideo quotidie edendum est, quia quo- decrevit habere Concilia. MS. in Biblio-
tidie proficiendum est. Ibid. theca Cotton.
42 enim modum abstinentia excesse-
Si 45
Si quis ante horam nonam quarta sex-

rit, vitium, non virtus erit. Ibid. taque feria manducat, nisi infirmus, duos
43 Columban. lib. de
Gibus sit vilis et vespertinus mo- dies in pane et aqua.

nachorum, satietatem fugiens et potus Quotidianis Pcenitent. Monachor. cap. 13.


VI.]
OF THE DISCIPLINE OF OUll ANCIENT MONKS. 57-.

one, unless he were weak, did upon the Wednesday


or Friday eat before the ninth hour," that is to say, be-
fore three of the clock in the afternoon, according unto our
" two
account, he should be punished with fasting days in
bread and water :" and in Bede's Ecclesiastical History,
46
that such as followed the information of Aidan did upon
the same days observe their fast until the same hour. In
which history we also read of Bishop Cedd, who was brought
up at Lindisfarne with our Aidan and Finan, that keeping
a strict fast, upon a special occasion in the time of Lent,
he did " 47
every day, except the Lord's day, continue his
fast, manner was, until the evening; and then also
as the
did eat nothing but a small pittance of bread and one egg
with a little milk mingled with water:" where, by the
way, you may note, that in those days eggs were eaten in
Lent, and the Sundays excepted from fasting, even then
when the abstinence was precisely and in more than an
ordinary manner observed.
But generally for this point of the difference of meats,
it is wellby Claudius out of St Augustine, that
noted
" 48 the children of wisdom do understand, that neither in

abstaining nor in eating is there any virtue, but in con-


tentedness of bearing the want, and temperance of not

corrupting a man^s self by abundance, and of opportunely


taking or not taking those things, of which not the use
but the concupiscence is to be blamed." And in the Life
of Furseus the hypocrisy of them is justly taxed, that
" 49 assaulted with do yet omit the
being spiritual vices,
care of them, and afflict their body with abstinence;" who,
" 50
abstaining from meats which God hath created to be
46
Cujus exemplis informal!, tempore intelligere, nee in abstinendo nee in man-
quique viri ac fceminae con-
illo, religiosi ducando esse justitiam, sed in aequanimi-
suetudinem fecerunt per totum annum, tate tolerandi inopiam, et temperantia per
excepta remissione quinquagesimae pas- abundantiam non se corrumpendi, atque
chalis, quarta et sexta sabbati jejunium opportune sumendi vel non sumendi ea,
ad nonam usque horam protelare. Bed. quorum non usus sed concupiscentia re-
Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. cap. 5.
prehendenda est. Claud, lib. ii. in Matt.
47 Do- 49
Quibus diebus cunctis, excepta Sunt nonnulli qui spiritualibus vitiis
minica, jejunium ad vesperam juxta impugnantur, sed his omissis corpus in
morem protelans, nee tune nisi panis abstinentia affligunt. Yit. S. Fursei.
50
permodicum et unum ovum gallinaceum Multi enim cibis, quos Deus ad per-
cum parvo lacte aqua mixto percipiebat. cipiendum cum gratiarum actione creavit,
Ibid. cap. 23. abstinentes, haec nefanda quasi licita su-
48 mmit hoc cst, superbiam, avaritiam,
Ostendens evidenter, filios sapientia? ;
576 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

received with thanksgiving, fall to wicked


things, as if they
were lawful; namely, to pride, covetousness,
envy, false
witnessing, backbiting." Of whom Gildas giveth this good
censure in one of his epistles, which now are lost : " 51 These
men, while they do feed on bread by measure, for this same
,
very thing do glory without measure; while they use water,
they are withal drenched with the cup of hatred; while
they feed on dry meats, they use detractions; while they
spend themselves in watchings, they dispraise others that
are oppressed with sleep: preferring fasting before
charity,
watching before justice, their own invention before concord,
severity before humility, and lastly, man before God. Such
men's fasting, unless be proceeded unto by some virtues,
it

but such as accomplish charity do


profiteth nothing at all;
say with the harp of the Holy Ghost, All our righteous-
nesses are as the cloth of a menstruous woman" Thus
Gildas, who upon this ground layeth down this sound con-
clusion, wherewith we will shut up this whole matter:
" 52
Abstinence from corporal meats unprofitable without
is

charity. They are therefore the better men who do not


fast much, nor abstain from the creature of God beyond
measure, but carefully keep their heart within pure before
God, from whence they know cometh the issue of life,
than they who eat no flesh, nor take delight in secular
dinners, nor ride with coaches or horses, thinking themselves
hereby to be as it were superior to others, upon whom
death hath entered through the windows of haughtiness."

invidiam, falsum testimonium, blasphe- pcrficiunt, cum cithara Spiritus sancti


miam. Ibid. dicunt, Quasi panmis menstruatae omnes
61
Gildas in Epistolis suis: Hi dum justitiae nostrae sunt. Ex libro Canonum
pane ad mensuram vescuntur, pro hoc Cott. titulorum LXVI.
ipso sine mensura gloriantur ; dum aqua
62
Abstinentia corporalium ciborum sine
utuntur, simul odii poculo potantur ; dum caritate inutilis est. Meliores ergo sunt
siccis ferculis vescuntur, detractionibus qui non magnopere jejunant, nee supra
utuntur; dum vigiliis expendunt, alios modum a creatura Dei abstinent, cor in-
somno pressos vituperant :
jejunium cari- trinsecus nitidum coram Domino sollicite

tati, vigilias justitiae, propriam adinven- servantes, aquo sciunt exitum vitae ; quam
tionem clausulam ecclesiae, illi qui carnem non edunt, nee prandiis
concordiae,
(al. cellae), severitatem humilitati, postre- secularibus delectantur, neque vehiculis
mo hominem Deo anteponunt. Horum et equis vehuntur, pro his quasi superiores
jejunium, nisi per aliquas virtutes adfec- ceteris se putantes, quibus mors intravit
tatur, nihil prodest qui vero caritatem
:
per fenestras elationis. Gild. ibid.
VII.] OF THE CHURCH, MIRACLES, &C.

CHAPTER VII.

OF THE CHURCH, AND VARIOUS STATE THEREOF, ESPECIALLY IN THE


DAYS OF ANTICHRIST; OF MIRACLES ALSO; AND OF THE
HEAD OF THE CHURCH.

CONCERNING the Catholic Churchour doctors taught


with St Gregory, that God " !
hath a vineyard, to wit, the
universal Church, which from just Abel until the last of
the elect that shall be born in the end of the world, as
many saints as it hath brought forth, so
many branches as
it were hath it budded:" that " 2 the of the congregation
just is called the kingdom of heaven, which is the Church
of the just:" that " 3 the sons of the Church be all such
as, from the beginning of mankind until now, have attained
4
to be just and holy:" that
what is said of the body may
be said also members
of and that in this respect,
the ;

" as well the


Apostles and all believers, as the Church
itself, have the title of a pillar given them in the Scrip-
tures:" that 5 the Church may be considered two manner
of ways ; both that which " neither hath spot nor wrinkle,
and is truly the body of Christ, and that which is gathered
in the name of Christ without full and perfect virtues;"

which, notwithstanding, by the warrant of the Apostle, may


have the name of the Church given unto it, although it
be "depraved with error:" that " 6 the Church is said not

1
Habet vineam, universam scilicet ec- appellari, et nihil interesse de corpore quid
clesiam,quse ab Abel justo usque ad dicatur in membris, cum et corpus divida-
ultimum electum qui in fine mundi nasci- tur in membra, et membra sint corporis.
turus est, quot sanctos protulit, quasi tot Id. in Gal. ii. ex Hieronymo.
5
palmites misit. Claud, lib. ii. in Matt. Ecclesias vocat, quas postea errore
arguit depravatas. Ex quo noscendum
8
Congregatio quippe justorum regnum
coelorum dicitur, quod est ecclesia justo- dupliciter ecclesiam posse dici; et earn
rum. Id. lib. iii. in Matt. quc non habeat maculam aut rugam, et
3
Ecclesiae filii sunt omnes ab institu- vere corpus Christi sit; et earn quae in
tione generis humani usque nunc, quotquot Christi nomine absque plenis perfectisque
virtutibus congregetur. Id. in Galat. i.
justi et sancti esse potuerunt. Id. lib. ii.
in Matt. ex eodem.
4
His et ceteris instruimur, tarn Apo-
6
Ecclesiam non habituram maculam
j

stolosomnesque credentes, quam ipsam neque rugam dicitur, respectu futurae


j

quoque ecclesiam, columnam in Scripturis vitae. Sedul. in Ephes. i.

00
RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

to have spot or wrinkle in of the life to come :"


respect
that when the Apostle In a great house there are
saith,
not only vessels of gold, &c. but some to honour and some
to dishonour, (2 Tim. ii. 20), by this " 7 great house he doth
not understand the Church, as some have thought, which
hath not spot nor wrinkle; but the world, in which the
tares are mingled with the wheat:" that yet in " the holy
s

Church" " the


evil are mingled with the
also good, and
the reprobate with the elect;" and that in this respect it
is resembled unto the wise and foolish virgins, as also to
" 9 the
marriage, by which this present Church is
king's
designed, wherein the good and the bad do meet together;"
so that " in this Church neither the bad can be without
10

the good, nor the good without the bad, whom the holy
Church notwithstanding doth both now receive indifferently,
and separate afterwards at their going from hence."
The number of the good Gildas complaineth to have
been n so exceeding short in his time among the Britons in
mother the Church in "
comparison of the other, that their
a manner did not see them lying in her own lap," albeit
"
they were the only true sons which she had." And for
external pressures, our doctors have delivered, that " 12 the
Church sometimes is not only afflicted, but also defiled with
such oppressions of the Gentiles, that, if it were possible,
her Redeemer might seem for a time utterly to have for-
saken her ;" and that in the raging times of antichrist
" 13
the Church shall not appear, by reason that the wicked

7
Magnum domum non ecclesiam dicit, crete suscipit, et postmodum in egressione
ut quidam putant, quae non habet ma- discernit. Id. ibid.
11
culam neque rugam; sed mundum, in Exceptis paucis et valde paucis, qui
quo zizania sunt mixta tritico. Id. in (ob amissionem tantae multitudinis, quae
2 Tim. ii. quotidie prona ruit ad Tartara) tarn brevis
8
Sancta ecclesia decem virginibus si- numeri habentur, ut eos quodammodo
milis denuntiatur ; in qua quia mali cum venerabilis mater ecclesia in suo sinu re-
bonis et reprobi cum electis admixti sunt, cumbentes non videat, quos solos veros
recte similis virginibus prudentibus et filios habet. Gild. Epist.
12
fatuis esse perhibetur. Claud, lib. iii. in Nonnunquam ecclesia tantis genti-
Matth. lium pressuris non solum afflicta, sed
9 Per has ecclesia et foedata est, ut si fieri possit,
regis nuptias praesens Redemptor
designatur, in qua cum bonis et mali con- ipsius earn prorsus deseruisse ad tempus
veniunt. Id. lib. eodem. videretur. Claud, lib. ii. in Matth.
13
10
In hac ergo ecclesia nee mali esse sine Ecclesia non apparebit, impiis tune

bonivS, nee boni esse sine malis possunt; persecutoribus ultra modum sasvientibus.
nunc in Matth.
quos tamen sancta ecclesia et indis- Id. lib. iii.
VII.
J
OK THK CHURCH, MIK A( I.l.s, \(.

persecutors shall then exercise their cruelty beyond all mea-


sure :" that in those " H times of antichrist not only more
often and more bitter torments shall be put upon the faith-
ful than before were wont to be, but, which is more grievous,
the working of miracles also shall accompany those that
inflict the torments ; as the Apostle witnesseth, saying,
Whose coming working of Satan, with all
is after the
" 15
seduction, signs, and lying wonders ,-" namely, juggling"
ones, "as it was foretold before, They shall shew such
signs that, if it were possible, the very elect should be
deceived, by such a fantastical power as Jamnes and
Mambres wrought withal before Pharaoh. " 16 What unbe-
" will then be converted unto
liever, therefore," say they,
the faith ? and who is he that already believeth, whose faith
trembleth not and is not shaken? when the persecutor of
piety is the worker of wonders, and the same man that
exerciseth cruelty with torments that Christ may be denied,
"
provoketh by miracles that antichrist may be believed ?
And " 17
what a pure and a single eye is there need of
that the way of wisdom may be found, against which so
great deceivings and errors of evil and perverse men do
make such a noise! all which notwithstanding men must
pass through, and so come to most certain peace and the
1
unmoveable stability of wisdom.'
Hence concerning miracles they give us these instruc-
tions :
First, that
"
neither if an angel should shew himself
18

unto us to seduce us, being subomed with the deceits of

14
Temporibus antichrist! non solum tatis fit etiam operator vhrtutis, idemque
tormenta crebriora et acerbiora, quam ipse qui tormentis saevit ut Christus nege-
prius consueverant, ingerenda sunt fideli- tur, provocat miraculis ut antichristo cre-
bus; sed, quod gravius est, signorum datur ? Claud, lib. iii. in Matth.

ergo mundo et simplici oculo


17
quoque operatic eos qui tormenta inge- Quam
runt, comitabitur; teste apostolo, qui opus est ut inveniatur via sapientiae, cui
ait,Cujus est adventus secundum opera- tantaa malorum et perversorum hominum
tionem Satanae, in omni seductione, signis deceptiones erroresque obstrepunt? quas
et prodigiis mendacii. Id. lib. eod. omnes necesse est evadere, hoc est, venire
15
Praestigiosis, sicut ante praedictum ad certissimam pacem et immobilem sta-

est, Dabunt signa, ita ut seducantur, si bilitatem sapientiae. Id. lib. i. in Matth.
18
fieri potest, etiam electi ; per phantasticam Nee si se angelus nobis ostendat, ad
virtutem, sicut Jamnes et Mambres coram seducendos nos subornatus fallaciis patris
Pharaone fecerunt. Sedul. in 2 Thess. ii. sui diaboli, praevalere debebit adversum
16
Quis ergo ad fid em convertitur incre- nos ; neque si virtus ab aliquo facta siet,
dulus ? cujus jam credentis non pavet et sicut dicitur a Simone Mago in acre vo-

concutitur fides ? quando persecutor pie- lasse. Sedul. in Rom. viii.

002
580 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

his father the devil, ought he to prevail against us neither ;

if a miracle be done by any one, as it is said of


should
Simon Magus that he did fly in the air ;" " 19 neither that
signs should terrify us, as done by
the Spirit, because that our
Saviour also hath given us warning of this beforehand." (Matt,
" 20 the faith
xxiv. 24, 25.) Secondly, that having increased,
miracles were to cease; forasmuch as they are declared to
have been given for their sakes that believe not :" and
that " 21
now when the number of the faithful
therefore,
is
grown, be many within the holy Church that
there
retain the of virtues, and yet have not those signs of
life

virtues; because a miracle is to no purpose shewed out-


wardly, if that be wanting which it should work inwardly :

for, the saying of the Master of the Gentiles,


according to
Languages are for a sign, not to the faithful, but to infidels"
1 Cor. xiv. 22. Thirdly, that the working of miracles is
no good argument to prove the holiness of them that be
U22 when the Lord
the instruments thereof; and therefore,
doth such things for the convincing of infidels, he yet
giveth us warning that we should not be deceived thereby,
invisible wisdom to be there where we shall
supposing
behold a visible miracle
:" for he saith, Many shall say
unto me Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in that day,
in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy
name done many miracles? Matth. vii. 22. Fourthly, that
66
^he tempteth God, who for his own vainglory will make
shew of a superfluous and unprofitable miracle." Such as
that, for example, was whereunto the devil tempted our
Saviour, Matth. iv. 6, to come down headlong from the
19 22
Neque signa vos terreant, tanquam Qualia propter infideles cum fecerit

per Spiritum facta, quia hoc et Salvator Dominus, monuit tamen ne talibus deci-

praemonuit. Id. in 2 Thess. ii. piamur, arbitrantes ibi esse invisibilem


20 Hie ostenditur, crescente fide signa sapientiam, ubi miraculum visibile vide-
cessare; quando fidelium causa danda rimus. Adjungit ergo et dicit, Multi di-
esse praedicantur. Id. in 1 Cor. xiv. cent mihi in ilia die, Domine, Domine,
31
Unde nunc cum fidelium numerositas nonne in nomine tuo prophetavimus, et
excrevit, intrasanctam ecclesiam multi in tuo nomine daemonia ejecimus, et in
sunt qui vitam virtutum tenent, et signa tuo nomine virtutes multas fecimus ? Id.
virtutum non habent ; quia frustra mira- lib. eod.

culum foris ostenditur, si deest quod intus


23 Ille Deum tentat, qui jactantiae suse
operetur. Nam juxta Magistri Gentium vitio superfluum et inutilem vult osten-

vocem, Linguae in signuni sunt, non fide- tare virtutem. Quid enim utilitatis habet,

libus, sed infidelibus. Claud, lib. L in quid commodi confert, si praeceps hinc in
Matth. plana descendero? &c. Id. lib. eod.
VII.] OF THE CHURCH, MIRACLES, &C. 581

Ct * 4

pinnacle of the temple unto the plain; every miracle


being vain, which worketh not some profit unto man's salva-
tion :" whereby we may easily discern what to judge of
that infinite number of idle miracles, wherewith the li\c>
of our saints
everywhere many whereof we
are stuffed ;

25
may justly censure, as Amphilochius doth the tales that
the poets tell of their gods, for

MJ0o w yeXwTos a^tous KCII

Fables, of laughter worthy, and of tears.

Yea, some of them also we may rightly brand as

MJ0oi/s dare/uLvous, cainovtav

Unseemly fables, and devils' documents.

For what, for more unseemly, and tend


example, can be
further to the advancement of the " doctrine of devils," than
that which
Cogitosus relateth in the Life of St Bridget ?
that she, for saving the credit of a nun that had been gotten
with child, " ^blessed her faithfully" forsooth, (for so the au-
thor speaketh,) and so caused her conception to " vanish away
without any delivery, and without any pain ;" which, for the
27
saving of St Bridget's own credit, either Hen. Canisius,
or the friars of Aichstad, from whom he had his copy of
Cogitosus, thought fit to scrape out, and rather to leave
a blank in the book than to suffer so lewd a tale to stand
in it. But I will not stir this puddle any further, but
proceed on unto some better matter.
And now are we come at last to the great point that
toucheth the Head and the Foundation of the Church.

Concerning observeth, that the title of


which Sedulius
28
Foundation is attributed both to Christ and to the Apostles
and Prophets; that where it is said, Isaiah xxviii. 16.
" 29 it is certain that
Behold, I lay in Sion a stone, &c.

1
Inane enim omne miraculum, 97 Lection, in sub
est Antiq. Lacuna,
quod utilitatem saluti non operatur hu- finem, Tom. v. p. 629.
manac. Ibid. 98
Fundamenta] Christum, et aposto-
2S
Amphiloch. in lambis ad Seleucuni. los, et prophetas. Sedul. in Hebr. xi.
'' 29 in
(
'oghos. Vit. Brigit. in Exemplari- Compertum est petra vel lapide
hus MS. Antiquiss. Hibliothec. Cotto- ( 'liristum cssc significatum. Id. in Rom,
niana? ct Ecclesiac Sarisburiensis. ix.
582 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

by the rock or stone Christ is signified ;" that in Ephes.


" 30 the
ii. 20, are the
Apostles foundation, or Christ rather
the foundation of the Apostles for Christ," saith he, " is :

the foundation, who is also called the corner-stone, joining


and holding together the two walls. Therefore is he the
foundation and chief stone, because in him the Church is
both founded and finished ;" and we are to account the
" 31 as ministers
Apostles of Christ, and not as the founda-
tion." The famous place, Matth. xvi. 18, whereupon our
Romanists lay the main foundation of the Papacy, Claudius
" 32
expoundeth in this sort :
Upon this rock will I build
my Church ; that is to say, upon the Lord and Saviour, who
granted unto his faithful knower, lover, and confessor, the
participationof his own name, that from petra, the rock,
he should be called Peter. The Church is builded" upon
him " because
;
only by the faith and love of Christ, by
the receiving of the sacraments of Christ, by the obser-
vation of the commandments of Christ, we come to the
inheritance of the elect and eternal life, as witnesseth the

Apostle, who saith, Other foundation can no man lay


besides that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus"
Yet doth the same Claudius acknowledge, that ^St Peter
received a kind of "
primacy for the founding of the Church,"
in whereof he termeth him M Ecclesice Principem
respect
and ^ "
Apostolorum Principem, the prince of the Church,"
"
and the prince or chief of the Apostles ;" but he addeth
" St Paul also was chosen in the same manner
withal, that
to have the primacy in founding the churches of the Gentiles,"

quia non nisi per


30
Apostoli fundamentum sunt, vel JEdificatur ecclesia;
Christus fundamentum est apostolorum. fidem et dilectionem Christi, per suscep-
Christus est fundamentum, qui etiam la- tionem sacramentorum Christi, per obser-
pis dicitur angularis, duos conjungens et vantiam mandatorum Christi, ad sortem
continens parietes. Ideo hie fundamen- electorum et aetemam pertingitur vitam,
tum et summus est lapis, quia in ipso et apostolo attestante qui ait, Fundamentum
fundatur et consummatur ecclesia. Id. enim aliud nemo potest ponere praeter id
in Ephes. ii.
quod positum est, qui est Christus Jesus.
31
Ut ministros Christi, non ut funda- Claud, lib. ii. in Matth.

mentum. Id. in 1 Cor. iv. Petrum solum nominat, et sibi com-


33

32
Super hanc petram aedificabo eccle- parat ; quia primatum ipse accepit ad fun-
siam meam, id super Dominum salva-
est,
dandam ecclesiam ; se quoque pari modo
torem, qui suo cognitori, amatori,
fideli I
electum, ut primatum habeat in fundandits
Id. in Galat.
confessori, participium sui nominis dona- I
gentium Ecclesiis. ii.

34 Id. in 35
Gal. v. Id. in Gal. ii.
vit, ut scilicet a petra Petrus vocaretur. I
VIJ.]
OF THE CHURCH, MIRACLES, &C. 583

and that he " ^received this gift from God, that he should
be worthy to have the primacy in preaching to the Gentiles,
as Peter had it in the preaching of the circumcision ;" and
therefore that "
37
St Paul this as challengeth grace granted
by God to himwas granted to Peter alone
alone, as it
" *not
among the Apostles," and that he esteemed himself
:

to be inferior to St Peter, because both of them were

by one ordained unto one and the same ministry :" and
that writing to the Galatians,
39
he did in the " title name
himself an Apostle of Christ, to the end that by the very

authority of that name he might terrify his readers; judging


that all such as did believe in Christ ought to be subject
unto him."
40
It is furthermore also observed by Claudius, that as
when our Saviour propounded the question "
generally unto
all the Apostles, Peter did answer as one for all so what ;

our Lord answered unto Peter, in Peter he did answer


and therefore, " 41 howsoever the power of
' 1
unto all;
loosing and binding might seem to be given by the Lord
unto Peter alone, yet without all manner of doubt it is to
be known, that it was given unto the rest of the Apostles
also, as himself doth witness, who, appearing unto them
afterthe triumph of his passion and resurrection, breathed
on them, and said unto them all, Receive the Holy Ghost:
whose sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and
whose sins ye retain, they are retained" Gildas the Briton
that "
42
goeth further, to the true
affirming it is
priest

36
Ab his itaque probatum dicit donum omnibus, Petrus respondit unus pro om-
quod accepit a Deo, ut dignus esset ha- nibus ; ita quod Petro Dominus respondit,
bere primatum in preedicatione gentium, in Petro omnibus respondit. Id. lib. ii.

sicut et habebat Petrus in praedicatione in .Match.


Id. in Gal. ii. 41
circumcisionis. Quae solvendi ac ligandi potestas,
Gratiam quamvis soli Petro data videatur a Do-
:t7
sibi soli primus vendicat
concessam a Deo, sicut et soli Petro con- mino, absque ulla tamen dubietate nos-
cessa est inter apostolos. Id. ibid. cendum est, quia et ceteris apostolis da-
38
Non illi sum inferior, quia ab uno tur ; ipso teste, qui post passionis resur-
sumus ambo inunum ministerium ordi- rectionisque suae triumphum apparens eis
nati. Id. ibid. insufflavit et dixit omnibus, Accipite Spi-
30
Apostolum se Christi titulo praeno- ritum sanctum ; quorum remiseritis pec-
tavit, ut ex ipsa lecturos nominis auctori- cata, remittuntur eis, et quorum retinue-
tate terreret; judicans omnes, qui in ritis, retenta sunt. Id. lib. eod.
Christo crederent, debere sibi esse sub- 42 Vero sacerdoti dicitur, Tu es Petrus,
jectos. Id. in Gal. i. et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclcsiam
40
Nam sicut interrogatis generaliter meam. Gild. Epist.
584 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

said, Thou art Peter , and upon this rock I will build my
Church ," that " 43
to Peter and his successors our Lord
saith, And
unto thee will I give the keys of the kingdom
" 44 unto
of heaven;" and consequently, that every holy
priest it is
promised, Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth,
shall be bound likewise in heaven; and whatsoever thou
shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed likewise in heaven"
Whereupon he pronounceth of the good priests of Britain,
that they " 45 do lawfully obtain the apostolical state," and
" 46
lawfully sit in the chair of St Paul;" and on the other
" 47 with unclean feet
side, of the bad, that they usurp the
seat of the Apostle Peter, but by the demerit of their covet-
ousness into the pestilent chair of the traitor Judas ;"
fall

and the ordainers of such " 48 place after a sort Judas


so
the betrayer of our Lord in the seat of Peter."
as Claudius noteth, that " 49
the foundation of
Lastly,
the Church was laid" not only upon St Peter, but also

upon St John so in a certain hymn supposed to


; be
written by Secundinus, known in this country commonly
by the name of St Scachlin, in the year of our Lord 448,
St Patrick also is thus commended " 50 He is constant in :

the fear of God, and unmoveable in the faith, upon whom


the Church is builded as upon Peter; whose apostleship
also he hath obtained from God, and the gates of hell shall
51
not prevail against him." Yea, Christ is there said to
have " chosen him for Vicar upon earth." His see
his
likewise of by one Calvus Perennis, in the days
Armagh is

of Brian King of Ireland, who was slain, as appeareth by

43
Petro ejusque successoribua dicit in Judae traditoris pestilentem cathedram
Dominus, Et tibi dabo claves regni ccelo- decidentes. Ibid.
rum. Ibid. 48
j udam quo dammodo in Petri cathe-
44
Itemque omni sancto sacerdoti pro- dra, Domini traditorem, statuunt. Ibid.
mittitur, Et quaacunque solveris super 49
g Cclesia3 sit itum fun .
terram, erunt soluta et m crelo; et quaa-
damentum> Claud in
. GaL &
cunque ligavens super terram, erunt
5
Constans fa Dei timore ' et hde im -
ligata et in crclo. Ibid.
45 mobilis, super quern aedificatur ut Petrum
Apostolicam sedem legitime obti-
nent. Ibid. ecclesia; cujusque apostolatum a Deo
4 sortitus est ' et inferm P ortae adversus eum
Si hunc vos apostoli retinetis in om-
non praevalebunt. Hymn, in laud. 8.
nibus affectum, ejus quoque cathedra?
legitime insidere noscatis. Ibid.
47 Sedem 51
Petri Apostoli immundis pe- Christus ilium sibi elegit in terris
j

dibus usurpantes, sed merito cupiditatis I vicarium. Ibid.


VII.] OF THE CHURCH, MIRACLES, &C. 585

52 " 53 the
Marianus, in the year 1014, termed city apostolick."
So Desiderius, Bishop of Cahors in France, is by our coun-
5i
tryman Gallus saluted both Papa and Apostolicus ; and
the Bishop of Kildare, in Ireland, honoured by Cogitosus
with the style of ^Summus Sacerdos and
M Summus Pon-
" "
tifex, the highest priest" and the highest bishop :" those
titles and prerogatives which the Pope now peculiarly chal-
lengeth unto himself, as ensigns of his monarchy, being
heretofore usually communicated unto other bishops, when
the universal Church was governed by the way of aristocracy.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE POPE'S SPIRITUAL JURISDICTIOK, AND HOW LITTLE FOOTING


IT HAD GOTTEN AT FIRST WITHIN THESE PARTS.

MASTER Campion telleth us, that " 'when Ireland first

received Christendom, they gave themselves into the juris-


diction both spiritual and temporal of the See of Rome."
But herein he speaketh without book, of the spiritual juris-
diction untruly, of the temporal absurdly. For from the
first legation of Palladius and Patricius, who were sent to
plant the faith in this country, it cannot be shewed out
of any monument of antiquity, that the Bishop of Rome
did ever send any of his legates to exercise spiritual juris-
diction here, much less any of his deputies to exercise juris-
diction temporal, before Gillebertus, quern aiunt prima
functum legations Apostolicce sedis per universam Hiber-
niam, saith one that lived in his own time, even Bernard

52
Brianus rex parasceve
Hiberniae, repperi in Bibliothecis Scotorum. Ego
paschae, Calend. Mali,
sexta feria, ix. scripsi, id est, Calvus Perennis in con-
manibus et mente ad Deum intentus ne- spectu Briani Imperatoris Scotorum. Ex
catur. Marian. Scot. See Caradoc of Vet. Cod. Ecclesiae Armachanae.
54
Lhancarvan, in the Chronicle of Wales, Domino semper suo, et Apostolico
p. 80. Patri, Desiderio Papae. Gallus peccator.
Sanctus Patricius iens ad coelum, man -
53 55
Cogitos. in Vit. Brigid. Antiq. Lect.
davit totum fructum laboris sui, tarn bap- Henr. Canisii, Tom. v. p. 625, lin. ult.
56
tismi, tarn causarum, quam eleemosyna- Ibid. p. 640, lin. 2.
rum, deferendum esse apostolica? urbi, 1
Edm. Camp. History of Ireland,
quae Scotice nominator Ardmacha. Sic lib. ii.
cap. 2.
586 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

himself in the Life of Malachias. One or two instances,


perad venture, may be alleged out of some obscure authors,
whose names and times and authority no man can tell us
news of; but unless that which is delivered by Bernard, as
the tradition that was current in his time, can be controlled

by some record that may appear to have been written before


his days, we have small reason to detract anything from the
credit of so clear a testimony.
This countrywas heretofore, for the number of holy
men that lived intermed the Island of Saints. Of that
it,

innumerable company of saints whose memory was reverenced


here, what one received any solemn canonization from the
Pope before Malachias, Archbishop of Armagh, and Lau-
rence of Dublin, who lived as it were but the other day ?
We read of sundry archbishops that have been in this
land betwixt the days of St Patrick and of Malachias what :

one of them can be named that ever sought for a pall from
Rome? Joceline indeed, a late monk of the abbey of
Furness, writeth of St Patrick, that the Bishop of Rome
2
conferred the pall upon him, together with the execution
of legatine power in his room. But he is well known to
be a most fabulous author ; andfor this particular Bernard,
who was his ancient, informeth us far otherwise ; that
" 3 from the
very beginning unto his time the metropolitical
see of Armagh wanted the use of the pall." With whom
the author of the Annals of Mailros doth fully accord ;
" 4
in the year 1151 Pope Eugenius,
11
the same
noting, that
to whom Bernard did write his books de Considerations,
" did John Papiron, transmit four
by his legate, palls into
11
Ireland, whither a pall before had never been brought.
And therefore Giraldus Cambrensis, howsoever he acknow-
" 5 choose
ledged! that St Patrick did Armagh for his seat,
and did appoint it to be as it were a metropolitical see,

pallia per legatum suum Johannem Pa-


2
Pallio decoravit, illique vices suas
committens atque legatum suum const! - pirum transmisit in Hiberniam, quo nun-
tuens, quaecunque in Hibeniia gesserat, quam an tea pallium delatum fuerat.
constituerat, disposuerat, auctoritatis suae Annal. Ccenobii Melros. MS. in Biblio-
munimine confirmavit. Jocelin. Vit. theca Cottoniana.
Apud Ardmacham sibi sedem elegit ;
5
Patr. cap. 166.
3
Metropoliticae sedi deerat aclhuc, et quam etiam quasi metropolim constituit
defuerat ab initio pallii usus. Bernard. et proprium totius Hibernia? primatiae
Vit. Malach. locum. Girald. Camb. Topograph. Hi-
4
Anno 1151, Papa Eugenius quatuor bern. Distinct, in. cap. 16.
VIII.] OF THE TOPE'S SPIRITUAL JURISDICTION, &C. 587

and the proper place of the primacy of all Ireland," yet


doth he affirm withal, that in very deed " 6 there were no
archbishops in Ireland, but that bishops only did consecrate
one another, until Johannes Papirio, or Paparo, the Pope's
legate, brought four palls thither." Whereupon some of
our chroniclers after him give this note concerning Gela-
sius, who was at that time Archbishop of Armagh, that
" 7 he is said to have been the first
archbishop because he
used the first pall," and that " others before him were
called archbishops and primates in name only, for the
reverence of St Patrick, as the apostle of that nation."
And indeed it might seem that the complaint made by
Anselm his Letters to Muriardach, King of Ireland, that
in
8
here " were consecrated
bishops by bishops alone," might
somewhat justify the truth of Oiraldus's relation, if we did
not find a further complaint there also, that they were
" 9 ordained
often by one bishop only." But as this latter
argueth not the want of a competent number of bishops
in the land, (for, as we shall hear
presently, they had more
than a sufficient number of such,) but a neglect of the
observance of the Canon provided by the Nicene Fathers
in that behalf; so can it not rightly be inferred out of
the former, that we had no archbishops here at that time,
but that the bishops rather did fail much in the canonical
respect which they ought to shew unto their metropolitan.
For that the Irish had their archbishops, beside many other
pregnant testimonies that might be produced, Pope Hilde-
brand's own Brief doth sufficiently manifest, which is directed
to "
10
or
Terdeluachus, the illustrious
Tirlagh, of King
6 8
Archiepiscopi vero in Hibernia nulli Episcopi quoque, qui debent esse
fuerant ; sed tantum se episcopi invicem
forma et exemplum aliis canonicae reli-
consecrabant ; donee Johannes Papirio, gionis, inordinate, sicut audivimus, aut a
Romanae sedis legatus, non multis retro solis episcopis, aut in locis ubi ordinari

annis advenit. Hie quatuor pallia in non debent, consecrantur. Anselm. lib.
Hiberniam portavit, &c. Ibid. cap. 17- iii. Epist CXLII.
9
7
Hie primus archiepiscopus dicitur, Dicitur, ab uno episcopo episcopum,
quia primo pallio usus est. Alii vero sicut quemlibet presbyterum, ordinari. Id.
ante ipsum solo nomine archiepiscopi et ibid. Epist. CXLVH.
10
primates vocabantur, ob reverentiam et Terdeluacho inclyto Regi Hiberniae,
honorem Sancti Patricii,tanquam apo- archiepiscopis, episcopis, abbatibus, pro-
stoli illius gentis. Pembrigius, auctor ceribus, omnibusque Christianis Hiber-
Annal. Hibern. a Guil. Camdeno edit. niam inhabitantibus. Gregor. Epist.
Thomas Caseus in Chronic. Hibern. MS. vn. ad Hibem. MS. in Bibliotheca
ad ann. 11 74. Cotton.
588 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

Ireland, the ARCHBISHOPS, Bishops, Abbots, Nobles, and all


Christians inhabiting Ireland." And for the archbishops
of Armagh in particular, it
appeareth most evidently by
Bernard, in the Life of Malachias, that they were so far
in name only," "
from being metropolitans and primates
that they exercised much greater authority before they were

put to the charges of fetching palls from Rome, than ever


they did afterward ; and that they did not only consecrate
bishops, but erected also new bishopricks, and archbishopricks
too sometimes, according as they thought fitting.
We read in Nennius, that at the beginning St Patrick
"founded here 365 churches, and ordained 365 bishops, beside
3000 presbyters. In process of time the number of bishops
was daily " 12
multiplied according to the pleasure of the

metropolitan,"" whereof Bernard doth much complain ; aird


that not only " so far that every church almost had a several
" 13 towns or cities there were
bishop," but also that in some
more" than one; " 14
ordained yea, and oftentimes bishops
were made without any certain place at all" assigned unto
them. And as for the erecting of new archbishopricks, if
we believe our legends, " 15 King Engus and St Patrick,
with all the people, did ordain that in the city and see of
which is now annexed to " should
Albeus," Emelye, Cashel,
be the Archbishoprick of the whole province of Munster."
In like manner also " 16 Brandubh, King of the Lagenians,

11
Ecclesias fundavit 365. Ordinavit Albei, quitunc ab eisdem archiepiscopus
episcopos eodem numero 365. Presby- ordinatus est per seculum. Ex Vita S.
teros autem usque ad tria millia ordinavit. Declani. Rex Engus et Patricius ordi-

Nenn. Histor. Britt. MS. naverunt, ut in civitate et cathedra sancti


12
Mutabantur et multiplicabantur epis- Albei esset archiepiscopatus omnium
copi pro libitu metropolitan! ; ita ut unus Memonensium semper. Ex Vita S.

episcopatus uno non esset contentus, sed Albei.


16
singulae pene ecclesiae singulos haberent
Facta Synodo magna in terra Lagi-

episcopos. Bernard. Vit. Malach. nensium, decrevit rex Brandubh, et tarn


13
Quod in villis vel civitatibus plures laiciquam clerici, ut archiepiscopatus
ordinantur. Lanfranc. Epist. ad Terde- omnium Laginensium semper esset in
luachum regem Hibem. apud Baron, ann. sede et cathedra sancti Moedog. Et tune
sanctus Moedog a multis catholicis con-
1089, num. 16.
14
Dicitur, episcopos in terra vestra secratus est archiepiscopus. Ex Vita S.

passim eligi, et sine certo episcopatus loco Edani. A rege jam Laginensium Bran-
constitui. Anselm. lib. iii. Epist. CXLVII. dubh filio jEthach constitutum est, ut
ad Muriardachum regem Hibern. archiepiscopatus Laginensium in civitate
15
Rex Engus et S. Patricius cum omni sancti Moedog esset. Ipsa ci vitas vocatur
populo ordinaverunt archiepiscopatum Ferna, quae est in terra gentis Kenselach.
Mumeniae in civitate et in sede sancti Ex Vit. S. Molyng.
VIII.] OF THE POPE'S SPIRITUAL JURISDICTION, &C. 589

with the consent as well of the laity as of the clergy, did


1'

appoint that in the city of Femes, which was the see of


" should be the Arch-
Moedog, otherwise called Edanus,
bishoprick of all the province of Leinster." But Bernard's
testimony we have no reason not to believe, relating what
was known to be done in his own very time, that 17 Celsus,
the Archbishop of Armagh, " had of the new constituted
another metropolitical see, but subject to the first see and to
the archbishop thereof." By which we may see, that in
the erection of new archbishopricks and bishopricks all

things were here done at home without consulting with the


See of Rome for the matter.
As for the nomination and confirmation of the arch-
bishops bishops themselves, we find the manner of
and
advancing St Livinus to his archbishoprick thus laid down
" l8 When Me-
by Boniface in the description of his life :

nalchus the Archbishop was dead, Calomagnus the King of


Scots, and the troop of his officers, with the under-courtiers
and the concourse of all that country, with the same affection
of heart cried out, that the holy priest Livinus was most

worthily to be advanced unto the honour of this order.


The king, more devout than all of them, consenting there-
unto, three or four times placed the blessed man in the
chair of the Archbishoprick with due honour, according to
the will of theIn like manner also did 19 King
Lord."
Ecgfrid cause our Cuthbert to be ordained Bishop of the
church of Landisfarne; and King Pipin 20 granted the Bi-
shoprick of Salzburgh to our Virgilius ; and Duke Gunzo
would have 21 conferred the Bishoprick of Constance upon our

17
Erat et altera metropolitica sedes, Domino jubente, collocavit. Bonifac.

quam de novo constituerat Celsus, primae Vit. Livin.


19
tamen sedi et illius archiepiscopo subdita Rex Ecgfridus episcopum fecit ordi-

tanquam primati. Bernard, in Vita Ma- nari Lindisfarnensium ecclesise virum


lachia. sanctum et venerabilem Cudbertum. Bed.
18
Illo defuncto, Rex Calomagnus et Hist. lib. iv. cap. 27, et Vit. Cuthbert.
ejus palatinorum chorus cum suis subau- cap. 24.
20
licis,totiusque regionis illius confluentia, Episcopatum Salzbergensem, pro de-
pari cordis affectu conclamaverunt, sanc- bito regiae magnificentiae, sancto concessit
tum Sacerdotem Livinum in honorem Virgilio. Vit. Episc. Salisburgens. An-
hujus ordinis dignissime sublimandum tiq.Lect. Henr. Canis. Tom. n. p. 259,
fore. His rex omnibus devotior consen- and Tom. vi. p. 1174.
21
tiens, ter quaterque beatum virum in ca- Walafrid. Strab. Vit. Gall. lib. i. cap.
thedra archiepiscopatus debito honore, 16, 17, 19, 20.
590 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH: [CHAP.

22
Gallus, but that he refused caused another, upon hisit, and
recommendation, to be preferred thereunto.
In the book of Landaff, which is called Tilo, (either
from Teliau, the second bishop of that place, whose life
is
largely there described, or rather from the place itself,
which of old was called 23 Teilo), we read that Germanus
and Lupus 24 did consecrate chief Doctor over all the Britons
inhabiting the right side of Britain, St Dubricius, being
chosen Archbishop by the king and all the diocese; and
that by the grant of Mouric the king, the nobility,
clergy,
and people, they appointed his episcopal see to be at Landaff:
that 25 Oudoceus, the third bishop after him, being elected

by King Mouric and the chief of the clergy and laity of


the whole diocese, was by them sent to the Archbishop of

Canterbury for his consecration that 26 Gucaunus, the 26th :

bishop of that church, was consecrated by Dunstan, Arch-


bishop of Canterbury, the pastoral staff being given him
in the court by Edgar, chief king of the English that :

next after him, 27 in the year 983, election being made by


the kings and the whole clergy and people of Glamorgan,

22
Theodor. Campidonens. vel quicun- Oudoceus cum clericis suis praedictis,
que auctor fuit Vitae Magni, lib. i. cap. 8, Merchui et Elguoret et Gunubui, cum
edit. Goldasti, x. Canisii. legatis trium abbatum et regis et princi-
23 In the Laws of Howel Dha it Is pum, ad Dorobernensem civitatem ad
named Ecclesia Teilau ; and so in Caradoc beatum archiepiscopum, ubi sacratus est
of Lhancarvan's Chronicle of Wales, p. 94, ecclesiae Landaviae in honore S. Petri

Joseph is called Bishop of Teilo or Lan- fundatae. Ibid.


26
daff. 982 (vel 872 potius) incarnationis
24
Super omnes Britannos dextralis par- Domini anno, Gucaunus episcopus Lan-
tis Britanniae B. Dubricium summum daviae consecratus a metropolitano Dun-
doctorem, a rege et ab omni parochia elec- stano Dorobernensis ecclesiae archiepisco-
tum archiepiscopum, consecraverunt. Hac po, data sibi virga pastorali in regali curia
dignitate ei a Germano et Lupo data, con- a summo rege Anglorum yEtgaro. Ibid.
stituerunt ei episcopalem sedem concessu 27 983 electione facta
anno, regum
Mourici Regis, principum, cleri et populi, Morcannuc, Ouein, videlicet et Idgual-

apud podium Lantavi. Lib. Ecclesiae laun, Catell et Cinuin filiorum Morchan-
Landavensis MS. then, Rotri et Grifud filiorum Elired, et
25 Morcannuc infra
Electione cleri et populi succedit in totius cleri et populi
episcopatu Landavensis ecclesiae, electione hortum Taratir in Gui et hortum Tivi

cleri Mercguini et Elgoreti et Gunnuini positi ; et dato sibi baculo in regali curia

magistri, et trium abbatum, Catgen ab- a summo rege Anglorum Adelredo, et a


batis Ilduti, Concenn abbatis Catmaili, metropolitano Dorobernensis ecclesiae Al-
Cetnig abbatis Docguinni, laicorum, Re- brico archiepiscopo, Bledri episcopus

gis Mourici, et filiorum Athruis et Idnerth, Landaviae consecratus est ; et 1022 anno
Guidgen et Cetiau, Brogmail, Gendoc, incarnationisDomini, ordinationis suae
Louhonerd, Catgualatyr, et omnium prin- autem 39 anno, migravit ad Dominum.
cipum totius parochiae. Missus est S. j
Ibid.
VIII.]
OF THE POPE'S SPIRITUAL JURISDICTION, &C. 591

and the pastoral staff given in the court by Ethelred, chief


king of the English, Bledri was consecrated by the Arch-

bishop of Canterbury, who is there named Albricus, though


in truth, at the year here assigned, Dunstan did still hold
the place; and that after his decease, in the year 1022,
28
by the election of the people and clergy of Landaff, and
the kings of the Britons, namely, King Riderch, that reigned
at that time
through all Wales, and Hivel, the substitute
of the King of Glamorgan, Joseph was consecrated bishop

by vElnod, Archbishop of Canterbury, at the word of Cnute,


king of England, in whose court the pastoral staff was given
unto him.
Here in Ireland, much after the same manner, Mr Cam-
himself setteth that " 29
to the monarch was
pion down,
granted a negative in the nomination of bishops at every
vacation, the clergy and laity of the diocese recommending
him to their king, the king to the monarch, the monarch
11
to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Although this last clause
be wrongly extended by him to the bishops of the whole
land, which properly belonged to the Ostman strangers,
that possessed the 30 three cities of Dublin, Waterford, and
Limerick for these being a colony of the Norwegians and
:

Livonians, and so countrymen to the Normans, when they


had seen England subdued by the Conqueror, and Normans
advanced to the chief archbishoprick there, would needs now
assume to themselves the name of 31 Normans also, and cause
their bishops to receive their consecration from no other

metropolitan but the Archbishop of Canterbury. And for-


asmuch as they were confined within the walls of their own
cities, the bishops which they made had no other diocese to
exercise their jurisdiction in, but only the bare circuit of
those cities: whereupon we find a certificate made unto
28 Gui hortum Tivi
1022 anno incarnationis Domini con- hortum Taratir in et

secratus est Joseph episcopus Landaviae regnantis. Ibid.


Cantuariae a metropolitano Dorobernensis 89
Edm. Campion. Hist. Hibern. lib. i.
yElnod archiepiscopo, in kalendis
ecclesiae
cap. ult. ad ann. 948.
Octobris, et in primo (vel 16 potius) anno 30
Girald. Cambrens. Topograph. Hi-
cycli decennovennalis, verbo regis Anglo-
rum Cnute, et dato sibi baculo in curia btm. Distinct, in. cap. 43.
81
illius electione populi et cleri Landaviae,
; Eodem tempore Norwagenses sive
et regum Britanniae, regis videlicet Riderch Ostmanni, qui civitates Hiberniae et ma-
regnantis per totam Gualiam tune tempore, ritima occupaverunt, Normanni vocati
et Hivel subreguli regis Morcannuc infra sunt. Annal. Dublin, ad ann. 1095.
592 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

Pope Innocent the Third, in the year 1216, by the Arch-


of Tuam and " 32 John
bishop his suffragans, that Papiron,
the legate of the Church of Rome, coming into Ireland,
found that Dublin indeed had a bishop, but such an one as
1'
did exercise his episcopal office within the walls only.
The first bishop which they had in Dublin, as it ap-
peareth by the records of that church, was one Donatus,
or Dunanus, as others call him, upon whose death, in the
year 1074, ^Gothric their king, with the consent of the clergy
and people of Dublin, chose one Patrick for their bishop,
and directed him into England to be consecrated by Lanfranc,
Archbishop of Canterbury, who sent him back with com-
34
mendatory letters, as well to the said Gothric, king of the

Ostmans, as to Terdeluachus, the chief king or monarch of


the Irish. Hereupon, after the decease of this Patrick,
^in the year 1085, the same Terdeluachus and the bishops
of Ireland joined with the clergy and people of Dublin in
the election of Donatus, one of Lanfranc*s own monks in
Canterbury, who was by him there also consecrated. Then
when he died, in the year 1095, his nephew Samuel, a
monk of St Albans, but born in Ireland, was 36 chosen bishop
in his place
by Murierdach, King of Ireland, and the clergy
and people of the city, by whose common decree he was
also sent unto Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, for his
consecration. Not long after the Waterfordians, following
the example of the Dublinians, erected a bishoprick among
37
themselves, and sent their new bishop to Canterbury for
his consecration ; the manner of whose election " the clergy

32 35
Dominus Johannes Papiron legatus , Anno Dom. 1085, Lanfrancus archi-
Romanae ecclesiae veniens in Hiberniam, episcopus Cantuar. ad regimen Dublinen-
invenit Dublin episcopum habentem, qui sis ecclesiae sacravit Donatum monasterii

tantum intra muros episcopale officium j


sui monachum in sede metropoli Cantuar.
exercebat. Testimon. Tuamens. Archi-
j
petentibus atque eligentibus cum Terde-
episc. in RegistroDublin. Archiepisc. et [
luacho Hiberniae rege, et episcopis Hiber-
Nigro Libro Ecclesiae S. Trinitatis. j
niae regionis, atque clero et populo praefatae
33
Ad regimen Dublinensis ecclesiae |
civitatis. Annal. Dublin.
Lanfrancus archiepiscopus Cantuariae, pe- j
36
Arege Hibernia, Murierdach no-
tente Goderico rege, Dublinensis ecclesiae
j
mine) necnon a clero et populo in episco .
populo et clero consentientibus et eligen-
j patum ipsius c i v itatis electus est, atque
tibus, in ecclesia Sancti Pauli
Londin.
j
ad Anselmum, juxta morem antiquum,
Patricium sacravit Antistitem. Annal.
sacran dus cum communi decreto directus.
Dublin, ad ann. 1074.
34
, Eadmer Histor. Novor. lib. ii. p. 34.
.

Habentur apud Baron, ann. 1089,


37 Ibid P- 3fi '
num. 12 et 16.
'
Mil.] OF THE POPF/S SPIRITUAL JURISDICTION', &C. 593

and people of Waterford," in the letters which they wrote


at that time unto Anselm, do thus intimate: " 3s We and
our King Murchertach, and Dofnald the bishop, and Dermeth
our captain, the king's brother, have made choice of this priest
Malchus, a monk of Walkeline, Bishop of Winchester." The
same man, without doubt, who was afterward promoted to
the bishoprick of Lismore, so much commended by Bernard
in the Life of Malachias.
The last bishop of Dublin, in the year 1122, was sent
unto Anselm^s next successor for his consecration, touching
which I have seen this writ of King Henry the First,
directed unto him :

Henricus Rex Anglice Radulpho Cantuariensi Archi-


39
episcopo, salutem : Mandavit mihi Rex Hibernice per
breve suum, et burgenses Dublinice^ quod elegerunt hunc
Gregorium in episcopum^ et eum tibi mittunt conse-
crandum. Unde tibi mando, ut petitioni eorum satis-
faciens, ejus consecrationem sine dilatione expleas.
Teste Ranulpho Cancellario apud Windelsor.
"
Henry, King of England, to Ralph, Archbishop of

Canterbury, greeting: The King of Ireland hath in-


timated unto me by his writ, and the burgesses of
Dublin, that they have chosen this Gregory for their

bishop, and send him unto you to be consecrated.


Wherefore I wish you, that satisfying their request,
you perform his consecration without delay. Witness,
Ranulph our Chancellor at Windsor."

All the burgesses of Dublin likewise, and the whole assem-


bly of the clergy, directed their joint letters to the Archbishop
of Canterbury the same time, wherein, among other things,
" 40 Know
they write thus you for verity, that the bishops
:

38
Nos et rex noster Murchertachus, et det TW dfciovv Kal TIM ffiifiaiveiv' ita et

episcopus Dofnaldus, Dermeth dux


et vox mando apud Latinos mediae aetatis
noster frater regis, elegimus hunc presby- scriptores, ut apud Vincentium, verbi gra-
terum Malchum, Walkelini Wintoniensis tia, Specul. Historial. lib. xxx. cap. 130,

episcopi monachum, nobis sufficientissime Humiliter ei mandaverunt, et hoc in


cognitum, &c. loco.
39 40
Ut apud Grsecos /ceXeueo non est sem- Sciatis vos revera, quod episcopi
per SecnroTiKi] Xc-is, quemadmodum ad Hiberniae maximum zelum erga nos ha-
Iliad. A. notatum est ab Eustathio, p. 884 bent, et maximeepiscopus qui habitat
ille

et 831, edit. Roman, sed aliquando respon- '

Ardimachae, quia nos nolumus obedire


P P
594 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

of Ireland have
great indignation toward us, and that bishop
most of all that dwelleth at Armagh, because we will not
obey their ordination, but always be under your govern-
will
ment." Whereby we may that as the Ostmans were
see,
desirous to sever themselves from the Irish, and to be
esteemed Normans rather, so the Irish bishops on the other
side, howsoever they digested in some sort the recourse
which they had to Lanfranc and Anselm, who were two
of the most famous men in their times, and with whom
they themselves were desirous to hold all good correspond-
ence,yet could they not well brook this continuation of
theirdependence upon a metropolitan of another kingdom,
which they conceived to be somewhat derogatory to the
dignity of their own primate. But this jealousy continued
not long ; for this same Gregory being afterwards made

Archbishop of Dublin, and the bishopricks here settled by


Johannes Paparo, as well they of Dublin as the others of
Waterford and Limerick, (for they also had one Patrick
consecrated bishop unto them by Theobald, Archbishop of

Canterbury,) did ever after that time cease to have any


relation unto the see of Canterbury.
And now to go forward. As the kings and people of
this land in those elder times kept the nominations of their

archbishops and bishops in their own hands, and depended


not upon the Pope's provisions that way; so do we not
find by any approved record of antiquity, that any visita-
tions of the clergy were held in the Pope's name, much less
that any indulgences were sought for by our people at his
" "Charter of St
hands. For, as for the Patrick," by some
42
intituled de Antiquitate Avalonica, wherein Phaganus and
Deruvianus are said to have purchased " ten" or " thirty"
years of indulgences from Pope Eleutherius,
and St Patrick
himself to have procured " twelve" years in his time from
Pope Celestinus, it might easily be demonstrated, if this
were a place for it, that it is a mere figment, devised by

42 In
eorum ordinationi, sed semper sub vestro scriptis recentioribus inveni, quod
dominio esse volumus. MS. ad calcem sancti Phaganus Deruvianus perquisie-
et

Collectionis Isidori Mercatoris, in Biblio- rant ab Eleutherio Papa, qui eos miserat,
theca Cottoniana. 10 (al. 30) annos indulgentiae. Et ego
41
Charta S. Patricii, in Guliehni Malms- frater Patricius a piae memoriae Celestino

buriensis libello de Antiquitate Glastoni- Papa 12 annos tempore meo acquisivi.


ensis Ecclesiac, MS. Ibid.
VIII.] OF THE POl'F/S S1MKITUAL .TUIIISDICTIOX, &C.

the monks of Glastonbury. Neither do I well know what


credit isbe given unto that straggling sentence which
to
I find ascribed unto the same author, "
43
If any questions
do arise in this island, let them be referred to the see
apostolic :" or that other decree, attributed to Auxilius,
" 44 Whensoever
Patricius, Secundinus, and Benignus any :

cause that is very difficult and unknown unto all the judges
of the Scottish nations shall arise, it is rightly to be referred
to the see of the Archbishop of the Irish, to wit, Patrick,
and to the examination of the prelate thereof. But if there,
by him and his wise men, a cause of this nature cannot
easily be made up, we have decreed it shall be sent to the
see apostolic; that say, the chair of the Apostle
is to to
" 1

Peter, which hath the authority of the city of Rome. Only


this I will say, that as it is most likely that St Patrick
had a special regard unto the Church of Rome, from whence
he was sent for the conversion of this island, so, if I my-
self had lived in his
days, for the resolution of a doubtful
question I should as willingly have listened to the judg-
ment of the Church of Rome as to the determination of any
church in the whole world : so reverend an estimation have
I of the integrity of that Church as it stood in those good

days. But that St Patrick was of opinion that the Church


of Rome was sure ever afterward to continue in that good
estate,and that there was a perpetual privilege annexed
unto that see that it should never err in judgment, or that
the Pope^s sentences were always to be held as infallible
oracles, that will I never believe. Sure I am that my
countrymen after him were of a far other belief, who were
so far from submitting themselves in this sort to whatsoever
should proceed from the see of Rome, that they oftentimes
stood out against it when they had little cause so to do.

43 examinationem
Patricius ait, Si quae quaestiones in hujus antistitis recte refe-

hac insula oriuntur, ad sedem apostoli- renda. Si vero in ilia, cum suis sapienti-
cam referantur. Vet. Collect. Canonum, bus, facile sanari non poterit talis causa
Bibliothecse Cottonianae, cujus initium :
praedictae negotiationis, ad sedem aposto-
Synodicorum exemplariorum innumerosi- licam decrevimus esse mittendam ; id est,
tatem conspiciens. ad Petri Apostoli cathedram, auctoritatem
44 ex- Romae urbis habentem. Hi sunt qui de
Quaecunque causa valde difficilis

orta fuerit, atque ignota cunctis Scotorum hoc decreverunt, id est, Auxilius, Patri-
gentium judiciis, ad cathedram archiepi- cius, Secundinus, Benignus. Vet. Codex
scopi Hibernensium, id est, Patricii, atque Ecclesiae Armachana?.
P P2
596 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT HUSH. [CHAP.

For proof whereof I need to seek no further than to those

very have been lately urged for main-


allegations which
tenance of the supremacy of the Pope and Church of Rome
in this
country.
First, Mr Coppinger cometh upon us with this wise
" Was not Ireland, among other countries, ab-
45
question:
solved from the Pelagian heresy by the Church of Rome,
r
as Caesar Baronius writeth ? then he setteth down the copy
of St Gregory's 46 Epistle in answer unto the Irish bishops
that submitted themselves unto him; and concludeth in the
" the
end, that bishops of Ireland, being infected with the
Pelagian error, sought absolution first of Pelagius the Pope,
but the same was not effectually done until St Gregory did
it." But in all this he doth nothing else but bewray his
own ignorance ; for neither can he shew it in Caesar Baronius,
or in any other author whatsoever, that the Irish bishops
did ever seek absolution from Pope Pelagius, or that the
one had to deal in any business at all with the other.
Neither yet can he shew, that ever they had to do with
St Gregory in any matter that did concern the Pelagian

heresy ; for these be dreams of Coppinger's own idle head.


The Epistle of St Gregory dealeth only with the contro-
" three
versy of the Chapters,'" which were condemned by the
" * 7 A11
fifthgeneral Council, whereof Baronius writeth thus :

the bishops that were in Ireland with most earnest study


roseup jointly for the defence of the three Chapters; and
when they perceived that the Church of Rome did both
receive the condemnation of the three Chapters, and strengthen
the fifth Synod with her consent, they departed from her,
and clave to the rest of the schismatics that were either in
Italy or in Afric or in other countries; animated with that
vain confidence that they did stand for the catholic faith,

45
Copping. Mnemosynum to the Ca- lorum, atque suo consensu quintain Syno-
tholics of Ireland, lib. ii. cap. 3. dum roborasse, ab eadem pariter resilie-
46
Gregor. lib. ii. Epist. xxxvi. Indict. rint,atque reliquis qui vel in Italia vel in
10. Africa aliisve regionibus erant schisma-
47 Ardentissimo studio fiducia ilia vana
pro trium capi- ticis inhaeserint, erecti,
tulorum defensione, junctis animis omnes quod pro fide catholica starent, cum quae
qui in Hibernia erant episcopi, insurrex- essent in Concilio Chalcedonensi statuta
ere. Addiderunt et illud nefas, ut cum defenderent. Baron. Annal. Tom. vn.
percepissent Romanam ecclesiam aeque ann. 566, num. 21.
suscepisse trium damnationem capitu-
VIII.] OF THE POPE'S SPIRITUAL JURISDICTION, &C. 59?

while they defended those things that were concluded in the


Council of Chalcedon." 48 And " so much the more fixedly,"
saith he, "did they cleave to their error, because whatsoever
Italy did suffer by commotions of war, by famine or pesti-

lence, all these unhappy things they thought did therefore


befall unto it, because it had undertaken to fight for the
fifth
Synod against the Council of Chalcedon."
Thus far Baronius, out of whose narration this may be
collected, the bishops of Ireland did not take all the
that
resolutions of the Church of Rome for undoubted oracles;
but when they thought that they had better reason on their
sides, they preferred the judgment of other churches before
it. Wherein how peremptory they were when they wrote
unto St Gregory of the matter, may easily be perceived by
these parcels of the answer which he returned unto their
" 49 The first
letters :
entry of your epistle hath notified that
you suffer a grievous persecution which persecution indeed, ;

when it is not sustained for a reasonable cause, doth profit


" 50 therefore it is
nothing unto salvation." And very unfit
that you should glory of that persecution, as you call it,

by which it is certain you cannot be promoted to everlasting


rewards." " 51
And whereas you that since that time
write,
among provinces Italy hath been most afflicted, you
other

ought not to object that unto it as a reproach, because it is


written, Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth

every son that he receiveth" Then having spoken of the


book that Pope Pelagius did write of this controversy, which
indeed was penned by Gregory himself, he addeth: " 52 If
after the reading of this book you will persist in that de-

48
Sed eo fixius inherent errori, cum gloriari, per quam vos constat ad astenia
quaecunque Italia passa sit bellorum mo- praemia minime provehi. Ibid.
51
tibus, fame, vel pestilentia, ea ex causa illi Quod autem scribitis, quia ex illo

cuncta infausta accidisse putarent, quod tempore inter alias provincias maxime
pro quintaSynodo ad versus Chalcedonense flagelletur Italia, non hoc ad ejus debetis
Concilium praelium suscepisset. Ibid.
intorquere opprobrium,quoniam scriptum
49
Prima itaque epistolae vestrae frons est,Quern diligit Dominus castigat, fla-
gravem vos pati persecutionem innotuit. gellat autem omnem filium quern recipit.
Quae quidem persecutio dum non rationa- Ibid.
92
biliter sustinetur, nequaquam proficit ad Porro autem si post hujus libri lec-
salutem. Gregor. Regest. lib. ii. Epist. tionem in ea, qua estis, volueritis delibera-
XXXVI. tione persistere, sine dubio non rationi
60
Dum igitur ita sit, incongruum nimis operam, sed obstinationi vos dare mon-
est de ea vos, quam dicitis, stratis. Ibid.
pcrsecutionc
598 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAI'.

liberation wherein now you are, without doubt you shew


that you give yourselves to be ruled not by reason, but
by obstinacy." By all which you may see, what credit is
to be given unto the man who would bear us in hand, that
this epistle of St Gregory was sent as an answer unto the

bishops of Ireland that did submit themselves unto him ;

53
whereas, to say nothing of the copies wherein this epistle
is noted to have been written to the
bishops of Iberia, and
not in Hibernia, the least argument of any submission doth
not appear in any part of that epistle, but the whole course
of it doth clearly manifest the flat contrary.
In the next place steppeth forth Osullevan Beare, who,
in his Catholic History of Ireland, would have us take
" 54
when the
knowledge of this, that Irish doctors did not

agree together upon great questions of faith, or did hear


of any new doctrine brought from abroad, they were wont
to consult with the Bishop of Rome, the oracle of truth."
That they consulted with the Bishop of Rome when diffi-
cult questions did arise, we easily grant ; but that
they
thought they were bound in conscience to stand to his
judgment, whatsoever it should be, and to entertain all his
resolutions as certain " oracles of is the that truth," point
we would fain see proved. For this he telleth us, that
55
wnen questions and disputations did arise here concern-
ing the time of Easter and the Pelagian heresy, the doctors
of Ireland referred the matter unto the see apostolic. Where-
upon the error of Pelagius is reported to have found no
patron or maintainer in Ireland, and the common course of
celebrating Easter was embraced both by the northern Irish
53
Vide Roman. Correct, in Gratian. de apostolicam retulerunt. Ac ita miseri
Consecrat. Distinct, iv. cap. 144, Ab an- Pelagii error nullum in Ibemia patronum
tiqua. vel assertorem invetiisse fertur, vel insula
54 aditu interclusus, vel ab ea protinus ex-
Quando vero doctores Ibernici de
gravibus fidei quaestionibus minime con- plosus, ubi contagiosam faciem aperuit,
sentiebant, vel aliquid novi dogmatis seseque cognoscendum praebuit; et ratio
peregre allati audiebant, soliti erant Ro- communis et ab ecclesia usitata celebrandi
manum Pontificem veritatis oraculum redivivi Domini festum ab Australibus
consulere. Philip Osullevan. Bear. Hist. Ibernis fuit semper observata, et a Sep-
Catholic. Ibern. Tom. i. lib. iv. cap. 6. tentrionalibus quoque et Pictis et Britoni-
55
Namque de tempore agendi paschatis bus, qui doctoribus Ibemis fidem accepe-
solennia, de quo aliae quoque catholicae runt, amplexa, ubi ecclesiaa Romanaa ritum
gentes saepe ambigerunt, et de Pelagiana cognoverunt. Quod ex apostolicarum
haeresi ubi fuit in quaestionem disputatio- literarum duplici capite a Beda relato non

nemque deducta, doctores Iberni ad sedem obscure constat. Ibid.


VIII.] OK THE POPE'S SPIRITUAL JURISDICTION, &C. 599

and by the Picts and Britons, as soon as they understood


the rite of the Roman Church. Which," saith he, " doth
not obscurely appear by the two heads of the Apostolic
Letters related by Bede, lib. ii. cap. 19-"
Butthat those Apostolic Letters, as he calleth them,
had that success which he talketh of, appeareth neither
plainly nor obscurely by Bede, or any other authority what-
soever. " The of Pelagius," saith he, " is reported
error
to have found no patron or maintainer in Ireland." But
who is he that reporteth so beside Philip Osullevan ? a

worthy author to ground a report of antiquity upon, who,


in relating the matters that fell out in his own time, dis-
covereth himself to be as egregious a liar as any, I verily

day breatheth in Christendom


think, that this The Apostolic !

Letters he speaketh of were written, as before hath been


touched, in the year of our Lord 639, during the vacancy
of the Roman see upon the death of Severinus. Our coun-
tryman Kilianus repaired to Rome forty-seven years after
that, and was ordained bishop there by Pope Conon, in the

year 686. The reason of his coming thither is thus laid


down by Egilwardus, or whoever else was the author of
his Life: " 56 For Ireland had been of old defiled with the

Pelagian heresy, and condemned by the apostolical censure,


which could not be loosed but by the Roman judgment."
If this be true, then that is false which Osullevan reporteth
of the of his Apostolical Epistle, that it did so pre-
effect

sently quash the Pelagian heresy, as it durst not once peep


up within this island.

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE CONTROVERSY WHICH THE BRITONS, PICTS, AND IRISH


MAINTAINED AGAINST THE CHURCH OF ROME TOUCHING
THE CELEBRATION OF EASTER.

THE difference betwixt the Romans and the Irish in


the celebration of Easter consisteth in this : The Romans
kept the memorial of our Lord's resurrection upon that
56
Hibernia siquidem olim Pelagiana !
radamnata, qua nisi Romano judicio solvi
iccdata fuerat hacrcsi, apostolicaque censu- I non poterat, Auctor antiqu. Vit. Kilian.
600 ItELIGlON OF THE ANCIENT HUSH. [CHAl'.

Sunday which fell betwixt the 15th and the 21st day of
the moon (both terms included) next after the 21st day of
March, which they accounted to be the seat of the vernal
CBquinoctium, that is to say, that time of the spring wherein
the day and the night were of an equal length. And in
reckoning the age of the moon they followed the Alexandrian
cycle of nineteen years, (whence our golden number had its
original), as it was explained unto them by Dionysius
Exiguus; which is the account that is still observed, not
only in the Church of England, but also among all the
Christians of Greece, Russia, Asia, Egypt, and Ethiopia,
and was, since the time that I myself was born, generally
received in all Christendom, until the late change of the
calendar was made by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth. The
northern and Scottish, together with the Picts, ob-
Irish
served the custom of the Britons, keeping their Easter

upon the Sunday that fell betwixt the 14th and the 20th
day of the moon and following in their account thereof,
;

1
not the nineteen years computation of Anatolius, 2 but Sul-
picius Severus^s circle of eighty-four years. For howsoever
3
they extolled Anatolius for appointing, as they supposed,
the bounds of Easter betwixt the 14th and the 20th day of
the moon ;
yet Wilfrid, in the Synod of Strenshal, chargeth
them utterly have rejected his cycle of nineteen years:
to
from which, therefore, Cummianus draweth an argument
" 4
against them, that they can never come to the true account
of Easter who observe the cycle of eighty-four years."
To reduce the Irish unto conformity with the Church
of Rome in this point. Pope Honorius, the first of that
his letters unto them, " exhorting
5
name, directed them

1
Non enim paschse diem Dominicum Domnonios, inter Epistolas Bonifacii,
suo tempore, sed a decima quarta usque num 44.
3 Vide
ad vicesimam lunam observabant. Quae Bed. Hist. lib. iii.
cap. 3 et 25.
computatio 84 annorum circulo continetur. Dionysii Petavii Notas in Epiphan. p. 194,
Bed. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 2. 195.
2 Porro isti secundum decennem no- 4
Ad veram paschae rationem nunquam
yemque Anatolii computatum, aut potius pervenire eos, qui cyclum 84 annorum ob-
juxta Sulpicii Severini regulam, qui 84 servant. Cummian. Epist. ad Segienum
annorum cursum descripsit, 14 luna cum Abbat. de Disputation e Lunze, MS. in

Judaeis -paschale sacramentum celebrant, Bibliothec. Cottonian.


5
cum neutrum ecclesiae Romanae Pontifices Exhortans, ne paucitatem suam, in
ad perfectam calculi rationem sequantur. extremis terrae fmibus constitutam, sapi-
Aldelm. Epist. ad Geruntium Regcm et entiorem antiquis sive modernis, quac per
K.] UK THE CELEBRATION OF K ASTER. 601

that they would not esteem their own paucity, seated in


the utmost borders of the earth, more wise than the ancient
or modern Churches of Christ through the whole world,
and that they would not celebrate another Easter contrary
to the paschal computations and the synodal decrees of the

bishops of the whole world." And shortly after the clergy


of Rome, as we have said, upon the death of Severinus,
wrote other letters unto them to the same effect. Now,
where Osullevan avoucheth that " the common custom used
by the Church in celebrating the feast of the Lord's Resur-
rection was always observed by the southern Irish," and
now " embraced also by the northern, together with the
Picts and Britons, who received the faith from Irish doctors,
when they had knowledge given them of the rite of the
Church of Rome;" in all this, according to his common

wont, he speaketh never a true word. For neither did the


southern Irish always observe the celebration of Easter com-
monly received abroad ; neither did the northern Irish, nor
the Picts, nor the Britons, many years after this admo-
nition given by the Church of Rome, admit that observation
among them to speak nothing of his folly in saying that
:

the Britons received the faith from the Irish, when the con-

trary is so well known, that the Irish rather received the


6
same from the Britons.
That the common custom of celebrating the time of
Easter was not always observed by the southern Irish, may
appear by those words of Bede, in the third book of his history,
and the third chapter : Porro gentes Scottorum, quce in au~
stralibus Hibernice insulce partibus morabantur, jamdudum
ad admonitionem apostolicce sedis antistitis pascha canonico
ritu observare didicerunt.For if, as this place clearly proveth,
" the nations of the Scots that dwelt in the southern
parts
of Ireland did learn to observe Easter after the canonical
manner, upon the admonition of the Bishop of Rome,"
it is evident that before that admonition they did observe
it after another manner. The word jamdudum, which Bede
here useth, is taken among authors oftentimes in contrary
" a " but
senses, either to signify great while since," or else,

orbem terrae erant, Christ! ecclesiis aesti- ficum aliud pascha celebrarent. Bed.
marent neve contra paschales computes,
; Hist. lib. ii.cap. ]J.
ct dccrcta synodalium totius orbis ponti- 6
St Patrick and his followers.
602 RELIGION OF THE AXCIENT HUSH. [CHAP.

" erewhile." In the former sense it must be here


lately" or
taken, if it have relation to the time wherein Bede did
write his book and in the
; latter also it
may be taken, if
it be referred to the time whereof he treateth, which is the
more likely opinion, namely, to the coming of Bishop
Aidan into England;, which fell out about half a year after
that Honorius had sent his admonitory letters to the Irish :

who, as he was the first Bishop of Rome we can read of


that admonished them to reform their rite of
keeping the
time of Easter ; so that the Irish also, much about the same
time, conformed themselves herein to the Roman usage, may
thus be manifested.
When Bishop Aidan came into England from the island
Hy, now the College of Monks there
7
called Y-Colum-kille,
was governed by Segenius, who, in the inscription of the

epistle of the clergy of Rome sent unto the Irish, is called

Segianus. Now there is yet extant, in Sir Robert Cotton's


worthy library, an epistle of Cummianus directed to this

Segienus, (for so is his there written,) Abbot of Y-Co-


name
lum-kille, wherein he plainly declareth that the great cycle
of 532 years, and the Roman use of celebrating the time of
Easter according to the same, was then newly brought in
into this country. " 9 For the " wherein
first
year," saith he,
the cycle of 532 years began to be observed by our men,
I received it not, but held my peace, daring neither to com-
mend it nor to dispraise it." That year being past, he saith
he consulted with the ancients, who were the successors of
Bishop Ailbeus, Queranus Coloniensis, Brendinus, Necessa-
nus, and Lugidus ; who being gathered together in Campo-
lene, concluded to celebrate Easter the year following together
with the universal Church. " 10 But not
long after," saith he,
" there arose a certain whited wall, pretending to keep
up
the tradition of the elders, which did not make both one, but
divided them, and made void in part that which was pro-

7 Bed. Hist. lib. iii. cap. 5.


10
Sed non post multum surrexit qui-
8 dam paries dealbatus, traditionem senio-
Id.lib.ii. cap. 19.
9
Ego enim primo anno quo cyclus rum servare se simulans ; qui utraque non
532 annorum a nostris celebrari orsus est, fecit unum, sed divisit, et irritum ex parte
non suscepi, sed silui, nee laudare riec vitu- fecit quod promissum est; quernDomi-
perare ausus. Cummian. Epist, ad Se- nus, ut spero, percutiet quoquo modo vo-
gienum. luerit. Ibid.
OF THE CELEBRATION OF KASTKR. ()03

inised ; whom the Lord, as I hope, will smite in whatsoever


11
manner he pleaseth.
To this drawn from " the tradition of the
argument,
he maketh answer, that " n they did simply and
11
elders,

faithfullyobserve that which they knew to be best in their


days, without the fault of any contradiction or animosity,
and did so recommend it to their posterity;" and opposeth
thereunto " 12
the unanimous rule of the universal Catholic
11
Church, deeming this to be a very harsh conclusion :

" 13 Rome Jerusalem


erreth, erreth, Alexandria erreth, An-
tioch erreth, the whole world erreth ; the Scottish only and
11
the Britons do alone hold the right. But especially he
urgeth the authority of the first of these patriarchal sees,
which now, since the advancement thereof by the Emperor
Phocas, began to be admired by the inhabitants of the earth,
" the
as place which God had chosen ; whereunto, if
greater
causes did arise, recourse was to be had, according to the
11

synodical decree, as unto the head of cities. And therefore


he saith that they sent some unto Rome ; who, returning
back in the third year, informed them that they met there
with a Grecian, and an Hebrew, and a Scythian, and an
Egyptian, in one lodging; and that they all, and the whole
world too, did keep their Easter at the same time, when
the Irish were disjoined from them by the space of a whole
14
month, " 15 And we have 11
saith
proved, Cummianus,
" that the virtue of God was in the relics of the
holy martyrs
and the Scriptures which they brought with them ; for we
saw with our eyes a maid altogether blind opening her eyes
at these relics, and a man sick of the palsy walking, and
11
many
devils cast out. Thus far he.
The northern Irish and Albanian Scottish, on the other

11 14
Seniores vero, quos in velamine re- This seemeth to have fallen out
pulsionis habetis, quod optimum in diebus either in the year 634 or 645, wherein
suis esse noverunt, simpliciter et fideliter Easter was solemnised at Rome the 24th
sine culpa contradictions ullius et animo- day of April ; and it appeareth by our
sitatis observaverunt, et suis posteris sic Annals, that Segenius was Abbot of
mandaverunt. Ibid. Y-Colum-kille from the year 624 until
12
Universalis ecclesiae Catholics una- 652.
nimem regulam. Ibid. 15
Vidimus oculis nostris puellam cce-
13
Roma errat, Hierosolyma errat, Alex- cam omnino ad has relliquias oculos ape-
andria errat, Antiochia errat, totus mun-
rientem, et paralyticum ambulantem, et
dus errat ; soli tantum Scoti et Britones
multa dicmonia ejecta. Cummian.
rectum sapiunt. Ibid.
604 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [cifAP.

side, made
little
reckoning of the authority either of the
Bishop or of the Church of Rome. And therefore Bede,
speaking of Oswy, King of Northumberland, saith that
"
^notwithstanding he was brought up by the. Scottish, yet
he understood that the Roman was the Catholic and Apostolic
" that the Roman Church was Catholic and
Church," or, Apo-
1'
stolic, intimating thereby that the Scottish, among whom
he received his education, were of another mind. And long
before that, Laurentius, Mellitus, and Justus, who were sent
into England by Pope Gregory to assist Austin, in a letter
which they sent unto the " Scots that did inhabit Ireland,"
(so Bede writeth,) complained of the distaste given unto them
" 17 We knew the
by their countrymen in this manner :

Britons ; we thought that the Scots were better than they ;

but we learned by Bishop Daganus coming into this island,


and Abbot Columbanus coming into France, that the Scots
did differ nothing from the Britons in their conversation :

for Daganus the bishop coming unto us, would not take
meat with us, no, not so much as in the same lodging wherein
we did eat."
And as for miracles, we find them as rife among them
that were opposite to the Roman tradition, as upon the other
side. If you doubt it, read what Bede hath written of
" 18 who of what merit he
Bishop Aidan, was, the inward
Judge hath taught even by the tokens of miracles," saith
he, and Adamnanus of the life of St Colme or Colum-kille.
Whereupon Bishop Colman, in the Synod at Strenshal, frameth
this conclusion :
" 19
Is it to be believed that Colme, our most
reverend Father, and his successors, men beloved of God,

16 18
Intell exerat enim veraciter Oswi, Qui cujus merid fuerit, etiam mira-
quamvis educatus a Scotis, quia Romana culorum signis internus arbiter edocuit.
esset catholica et apostolica ecclesia. Bed. Bed. Hist. lib. iii. cap. 15. It. 16 and 17.
19
Hist. lib. iii. cap. 29. Numquid reverendissimum patrem
17 Sed cognoscentes Britones, Scottos nostrum Columbam et successores ejus,
meliores putavimus. Scottos vero per viros Deo dilectos, qui eodem modo
Daganum episcopum in hanc insulam, pascha fecerunt, divinis paginis contra-
et Columbanum abbatem in Gallias veni- ria sapuisse vel egisse, credendum est ?

entem, nihil discrepare a Britonibus in cum plurimi fuerint in eis, quorum sanc-
eorum conversatione didicimus. Nam titati ccelesti signa et virtutum quae fece-

Daganus episcopus ad nos veniens, non runt miracula testimonium praebuerunt;


solum cibum nobiscum, sed nee in eodem quos ut ipse sanctos esse non dubitans
hospitio quo vescebamur, sumere voluit. semper eorum vitam, mores et disciplinam
Laurent. Epist. apud Bed. lib. ii. sequi non desisto. Colman. apud Bed.
cap. 4. Hist. lib. iii. cap. 29.
IX.]
OF THK f K K I. II 11 ATI OX OF F.ASTKK. G05

which observed Easter in the same manner that we do, did


hold or do that which was contrary to the holy Scriptures ?
to whose
seeing there were very many among them, heavenly
holiness the signs and miracles which they did bare testi-

mony ; whom
nothing doubting to be saints, I desist not to
follow evermore their life, manners, and discipline." What
Wilfrid replied to this, may be seen in Bede. That which
I much wonder at, among the many wonderful things related

of St Colme by Adamnanus, is this, that where he saith,


that this saint, during the time of his abode in the abbey
of Clone, now called Clonmacnosh, did, " by the revelation
20

of the Holy Ghost, prophesy of that discord which after

many clays arose among


the churches of Scotland (or Ireland)
for the diversity of the feast of Easter;" yet he telleth us
not that the Holy Ghost revealed unto him that he himself,
whose example animated his followers to stand more stiffly
herein against the Roman rite, was tinthe wrong, and ought
to conform his judgment to the tradition of the churches
abroad as if the Holy Ghost did not much care whether
;

of both sides should carry the matter away in this contro-

versy ; for which, if you please, you shall hear a very pretty
tale out of an old legend, concerning this same discord
whereof St Colme is said to have
prophesied.
" a 21 " there was
Upon certain time," saith my author,
a great council of the people of Ireland in the White-field,
among whom there was contention about the order of Easter :

for Lasreanus, the abbot of the monastery of Leighlin, unto


whom there were subject a thousand and five hundred monks,
defended the new order that lately came from Rome, but
others defended the old." This Lasreanus or Lazerianus
is the man who in other
legends, of no other credit than
this we now have in hand, is
reported to have been the
Bishop of Rome's legate in Ireland, and is commonly
accounted to have been the first
Bishop of the church of
Leighlin. His principal antagonist at this meeting was

20
Revelante Spiritu Sancto prophetavit albo, inter quos erat contentio circa
de ilia qua; post dies multos ob diversita- ordinem paschae ; Lasreanus enim, abbas
tem paschalis festi orta est inter Scotiae monasterii Leighlinne, cui suberant mille
ecclesias discordia. Adamnan. Vit. Co- quingenti monachi, novum ordinem de-
lumb. lib. i.
cap. 3. fendebat qui nuper de Roma venit ; alii
21
Quodam tempore erat magnum con- vero veterem defendebant. Vit. S. Munnje
cilium populorum Hibemuc in campo Abbatis MS.
606 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

one Munna, founder of the monastery which from him was


called Teach-munna, that is, the house of Munna, in the

bishoprick of Meath; who would needs bring this question


to the same kind of trial here, that Austin the monk is said
to have done in England. In defence of the Roman order,
Bede telleth us that Austin made this motion to the British
" 22 Let us be-
bishops for a final conclusion of the business:
seech God, which maketh men to dwell of one mind together in
their father's house, that he will vouchsafe
by some heavenly
signs tomake known unto us what tradition is to be followed,
and by what way we may hasten to the entry of his kingdom.
Let some sick man be brought hither and by whose prayers ;

he be cured, let his faith and working be believed to be


shall

acceptable unto God, and to be followed by all men."


Now Munna, who stood in defence of the order formerly
used by the British and Irish, maketh a more liberal proffer
to his choice: "
23
in this kind, and leavethiLasreanus Let us
" but in the name of God us
dispute briefly," saith he, let

give judgment. Three things are given to thy choice, Las-


reanus. Two books shall be cast into the fire, a book of
the old order and of the new, that we may see whether of
them both shall be freed from the fire. let two monks, Or
one of mine and another of thine, be shut up into one house,
and let the house be burnt, and we shall see which of them
will escape untouched of the fire. Or let us go unto the
grave of a just monk that is dead, and raise him up again,
and let him tell us after what order we ought to celebrate
Easter this year." But Lasreanus, being wiser than so,
refused to put so great a matter to that hazard, and there-
fore returned this grave answer unto Munna, if all be true
" 24
We
that is in the legend: will not go unto thy judg-

22 Obsecremus Deum, qui habitare mittentur, liber veteris ordinis et novi ;


fecit unanimes in domo patris sui, ut ipse ut videamus quis eorum de igne libera-
nobis insinuate ccelestibus signis dignetur, bitur. Vel duo monachi, unus meus, alter

quae sequenda traditio, quibus sit viis ad tuus, in unam domum recludantur, et

ingr essum regni illius properandum . A d- domus comburatur, et videbimus quis


ducatur aliquis aeger ; et per cujus pieces ex iis evadat intactus igne. Aut eamus
fuerit curatus, hujus fides et operatic Deo ad sepulchrum mortui justi monachi, et
devota atque omnibus sequenda credatur. resuscitemus eum, et indicet nobis quo
Bed. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 2. ordine debemus hoc anno pascha celebrare.
23 Vit. S. Munnae.
Breviter disputemus ; sed in nomine
24
Domini agamusjudicium. Tresoptiones Non ibimus ad judicium tuum, quo-
dantur tibi, Lasreane. Duo libri in ignem niam scimus quod pro magnitudine la-
OF T1IK ( KLK1M5 AT ON
I (>l- F. A VI' K I! .

IX.]

ment, because we know that for the greatness of thy labour


and holiness, if thou shouldest bid that Mount Marge should
be changed into the place of the White-field, and the White-
field into the place of Mount Marge, God would presently

do this for thy sake." So prodigal do some make God to


be of miracles, and how they should
in a manner careless
fall; as if
dispensing of
in them
the he did respect the

gracing of persons rather than of causes.


In what year this Council of the White-field was held
is not certainly known, nor yet whether St Munna be that
" whited wall" of whom we heard Cummianus The
complain.
Synod of Strenshal, before-mentioned, was assembled long
after at Whitby, called by the Saxons Streansheal, in York-
25
shire, the year of our Lord 664, for the decision of the
same question. Concerning which, in the Life of Wilfrid,
(written by one ^Eddi an acquaintance of his, surnamed
Stephen, at the commandment of Acca, who in the time of
Bede was Bishop of Hangustald, or Hexham, in Northum-
"
berland), we read thus ^Upon a certain time, in the days
:

of Colman, metropolitan Bishop of the city of York, Oswi


and Alhfrid his son being kings, the abbots and priests,
and all the degrees of ecclesiastical orders, meeting together
at the monastery which is called Streansheal, in the presence
of Hilde, the most godly mother of that abbey, in presence

si diceres ut mons
boris tui et sanctitatis, chalem dominicam celebrandam. Tern-
Marge commutaretur in locum campi albi pus datum Colmanno episcopo pri-
est
et campus albus in locum montis Marge, mum, utdignum erat, audientibus cunctis
hoc propter te Deus statim faceret. Ibid. reddere rationem. Hie autem intrepida
25 Bed. Hist. lib. iii. mente respondens dixit, Patres nostri et an-
cap. 26.
26 tecessores eorum manifeste Spiritu Sancto
Quodam tempore in diebus Colmanni
Eboracae civitatis episcopi metropolitani, inspirati, ut erat Columcille, xiv. Luna
regnantibus Oswi et Alhfrido filio ejus, die Dominica pascha celebrandum sanxe-
abbates et presbyteri omnesque ecclesi- runt ; exemplum tenentes Johannis Apo-
asticae discipline gradus simul in unum stoli et Evangelistae, qui supra pectus
convenientes, in coenobio quae Streansheal Domini in ccena recubuit, et Amator Do-

dicitur; praesente sanctimoniale matre mini dicebatur. Hie xiv. Luna pascha
et sicut
piissima Hilde, praesentibus quoque re- celebravit; nos, discipuli ejus

gibus et duobus Colmanno et ^Egilberhto Polycarpus et alii celebramus ; nee hoc

episcopis, de paschali ratione conquire- audemus pro patribus (fort, partibus)


bant, quid esset rectissimum, utrum more nostris, nee volumus mutare. Stephanus
Brittonum Scottorum omnisque aqui-
et Presbyter (qui et jEddi, apud Bedam,
lonalis partis a xiv. Luna dominica die Hist. lib. iv. cap. 2.) in Vita Wilfrid,
veniente usque ad xxn. {leg. xx.) pas- cap. 10. MS. in Bibliotheca Sarisburien-
cha agendum ; an melius sit ratione sedis sis Ecclesiae, et D. Roberti Cottoni.

apostolicae, a xv. Luna usque xxi. pas-


608 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

also of the kings and the two bishops Colman and Mge\-
berht, enquiry was made touching the observation of Easter,
what was most right to be held
whether Easter should be ;

kept according to the custom of the Britons and the Scots,


and all the northern part, upon the Lord^s day that came
from the 14th day of the Moon until the 20th, or whether
it were better that Easter Sunday should be celebrated from

the 15th day of the Moon until the 21st, after the manner
of the see apostolic. Time was given unto Bishop Colman,
in the first place, as it was fit, to deliver his reason in the
audience of all ; who with an undaunted mind made his
answer, and said, Our fathers and their predecessors, who
were manifestly inspired by the Holy Ghost, as Colum-kille
was, did ordain that Easter should be celebrated upon the
Lord's day that fell upon the 14th Moon; following the
example of John the Apostle and Evangelist, who leaned
upon the breast of our Lord at his last Supper, and was
called the lover of the Lord. He celebrated Easter upon
the 14th day of the Moon, and we with the same confidence
celebrate the same, as his disciples Polycarpus and others
did ; neither dare we, for our parts, neither will we, change
this."
Bede
relateth his speech thus :
" 27
This Easter which
I use to observe I received from my Elders, who did send
me which all our Fathers, men beloved of
bishop hither;
God, are known to have celebrated after the same manner:
which that it may not seem unto any to be contemned and
rejected, it is the same which the blessed Evangelist John,
the disciple specially beloved by our Lord, with all the
churches which he did oversee, is read to have celebrated."
Fridegodus, who wrote the Life of Wilfrid at the command
of Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, expresseth the same in
verse, after this manner :

28
Nos seriem patriam, non frivola scripta tenemus,
29 Eusebii Polycarpo dante Johannis.
Discipulo

27 Pascha hoc
quod agere soleo, a majo- pulus specialiter Domino dilectus, cum
ribus meis accepi, qui me hue episcopum omnibus quibus praeerat ecclesiis, cele-

miserunt; quod omnes patres nostri viri brasse legitur. Colman. apud Bedam,
Deo eodem modo celebrasse nos-
dilecti Hist. lib. cap. 25.
iii.

28
cuntur. Quod ne cui contemnendum et Fridegod. Vit. Wilfrid. MS. in Bib-

reprobandum esse
videatur, ipsum est liothec. Cottonian.
29
quod beatus Johannes Evangelista, disci- i. Sancti vel Beati.
IX
1
OF THE CELEBRATION OF K AST Mil. COO

Ille etenim bis septcnm sub tcmpore Phceba;


Sanctum prafixit nobis fore Pascha colendum,
Atque nefas dixit, si quis contraria sentit.

On the contrary side Wilfrid objected unto Colnian and his


clerks of Ireland, that they with their complices, the Picts
and the Britons, " ^out of the two utmost isles, and those
not whole neither, did with a foolish labour fight against
the whole world." " 31
And if that Columb of yours," saith
"
he, yea, and ours also if he were Christ's, was holy and
powerful in virtues, could he be preferred before the most
blessed prince of the Apostles ? unto whom the Lord said,
Thou art Peter , and upon this rock will I build my Church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it ; and I
will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven"
Which last words wrought much upon the simplicity of
" come to
King Oswy, who feared that ^when he should
the doors of the kingdom of heaven, there would be none to

open, if he were displeased who was proved to keep the


keys;" but prevailed nothing with Bishop Colman, who
" ^for the fear of his as in the life of
country," Stephen
Wilfrid " contemned the tonsure and the obser-
writeth,
vation of Easter" used by the
taking Romans; and " 34

with him such as would follow him, that is to say, such as


would not receive the Catholic Easter and the tonsure of
the crown, (for of that also there was then no small question,)
returned back again into Scotland."

30
Cum quibus de duabus ultimis oce- coelorum, non sit qui reseret, averso illo
ani insulis, his non totis, contra totum qui claves tenere probatur. Ibid.
33
orbem stulto labore pugnant. Wilfrid, Tonsuram et paschae rationem prop-
ter timorem patriae suae
apud Bed. lib. iii. cap. 25. contempsit. Steph.
31
Et si sanctus erat aut potens virtuti- Presbyter in Vit. Wilfrid, cap. 10.
84 Colman
bus ille Columba vester, imo et noster si videns spretam suam doc-
Christi erat, num praeferri potuit beatis- trinam, sectamque esse despectam; as-
simo apostolorum principi ? cui Dominus sumptis his qui se sequi voluerunt, id est,
ait, Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram qui pascha Catholicum et tonsuram coro-
aedificabo ecclesiam meam, et portae inferi nae, nam et de hoc quaestio non minima
non praevalebunt adversus earn; et tibi erat, recipere nolebant, in Scotiam regres-
dabo claves regni coelorum. Ibid. sus est. Bed. Hist. lib. iii. cap. 26. Vide
32
Ne forte me adveniente ad fores regni etiam lib. iv. cap. 4.

Q a
610 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP,

CHAPTER X.

OF THE HEIGHT THAT THE OPPOSITION BETWIXT THE ROMAN PARTY


AND THAT OF THE BRITISH AND SCOTTISH GREW UNTO, AND THE
ABATEMENT THEREOF IN TIME ; AND HOW THE DOCTORS OF THE
SCOTTISH AND IRISH SIDE HAVE BEEN EVER ACCOUNTED MOST EMINENT
MEN IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, NOTWITHSTANDING THEIR DISUNION
FROM THE BISHOP OF ROME.

IN Column's room Wilfrid was chosen Archbishop of


York, who had learned at Rome, from Archdeacon Boniface,
" Hhe course of
Easter, which the schismatics of Britain
and Ireland did not know;" (so go the words of Stephen,,
the ancient writer of his life;) and afterwards did brag
" 2 that he was the first which did teach the true Easter

in Northumberland, having cast out the Scots, which did


ordain the ecclesiastical songs to be parted on sides, and
which did command St Benefs rule to be observed by
monks." But when he was named to the archbishoprick,
3
he refused it at the first, as William of Malmesbury
" lest he should receive his consecration from the
relateth,
Scottish Bishops, or from such as the Scots had ordained,
whose communion the Apostolic See had rejected." The
speech which he used to this purpose unto the kings that
had chosen him, is thus laid down by Stephen the writer
" 4O
of his life my honourable lords the kings, it is
:

Paschalem rationem, quam schisma- naverunt, consecrationem susciperet, quo-


1

tic! Britanniaet Hiberniae non cognove- rum communionem sedes aspernaretur


runt, et alias multas ecclesiasticae disci- apostolica. Id. ibid.

plinae regulas Bonifacius archidiaconus 4


O
domini venerabiles reges, omnibus
quasi proprio filio suo diligenter dicta vit. modis nobis necessarium est provide con-
Steph. Presb. Vit. Wilf. cap. 5. See also siderate, quomodo cum' electione vestra,
Bed. lib. v. cap. 20. sine accusatione catholicorum virorum, ad
2
Se primum fuisse qui verum pascha gradum episcopalem cum Dei adjutorio
in Northumbria Scotis ejectis docuerit, venire valeam. Sunt enim hie in Britan-
qui cantus ecclesiasticos antiphonatim in- nia multi episcopi, quorum nullum meum
stituerit, qui sanctissimi Benedict! regu- est accusare, quamvis veraciter sciam,
lam a monachis observari jusserit. Guli- quod aut qnatuordecim anni sunt, ut
elm. Malmesbur. lib. iii. de Gest. Pontific. Britones et Scoti ab illis sunt ordinati,
Angl. quos nee apostolica sedes in communio-
3
Sed perstitit ille negare, ne ab epis- nem recepit, neque eos qui schismaticis
copis Scottis, vel ab iis quos Scotti ordi- consentiunt. Et ideo in mea humilitate
X.] OF THE OPPOSITION TO THK ROMAN I' A I; M Gil

necessary for us by all means providently to consider how


with your election I may, by the help of God, come to the

degree of a bishop without the accusation of Catholic men.


For there be many bishops here in Britain, none of whom
it is
my part to accuse, ordained within these fourteen years
by the Britons and Scots, whom neither the See Apostolic
hath received into her communion, nor yet such as consent
with the schismatics. And therefore in my humility I
request of you, that you would send me with your warrant
beyond the sea into the country of France, where many
Catholic bishops are to be had ; that without any contro-
versy of the Apostolic See I may be counted meet, though
unworthy, to receive the degree of a bishop."
5
While Wilfrid protracted time beyond the seas, King
Oswy, led by the advice of the Quartadecimans, (so they
injuriously nicknamed the British and Irish that did cele-
brate Easter from the fourteenth to the twentieth day of
the moon), appointed " 6 a most religious servant of God and
an admirable doctor that came from Ireland," named Ceadda,
to be ordained Bishop of York in his room.

Constituunt etenim perverso canone Coeddam,


Moribus acclinem, doctrinae robore fortem,
Prsesulis eximii servare cubilia: sicque
Audacter vivo sponsam rapuere marito;

saith Fridegodus. This Ceadda, being the scholar of Bishop


Aidan, was far otherwise affected to the British and Irish
than Wilfrid was, and therefore was content to receive his
7
ordination from Wini, Bishop of the West Saxons, and two

6
a vobis posco, ut me mittatis cum vestro Ordinantes servum Dei religiosissi-
praesidio trans mare ad Galliarum regio- mum et admirabilem doctorem de Hiber-
nem, ubi catholic! episcopi multi haben- nia insula venientem nomine Cceodda,
tur ; ut sine controversia apostolicae sedis, adhuc eo ignorante, in sedem episcopalem
gradum episcopalem me- Euroicae civitatis indocte contra" canones 1

licet indignus,
rear accipere. Steph. Presb. Vit. Wilfrid, constituerunt. Steph. Presb. Vit. Wilfrid,

cap. 12. cap. 14.


5
Quo ultra mare moras nectente Oswius
7
Ab illo est consecratus antistes, as-

Rex, praeventus conciliis Quartadecima- sumptis in societatem ordinationis duobus


norum, qui vocabantur ita quia pascha in de Britonum gente episcopis, qui Domini-
quartadecima luna cum Judacis celebra- cum paschae diem secus morem canonicum
bant, Ceddam virum sanctissimum, tamen a 14 usque ad 21 lunam celebrant Non
contra regulas, intrusit tribunal! Ebora- enim erat tune ullus, excepto illo Wini, in
censi. Gulielm. Malmsb. lib. iii. de Gest. tota Britannia canonice ordinatus
episco-
Pontif. Angl. pus. Bed. Hist. lib. iii. cap. 2tt.
612 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

other British
bishops, that were of the Quartadeciman party :

for at that time, as Bede noteth, " there was not in all
Britain any bishop canonically ordained," (that is to say, by
such as were of the communion of the Church of Rome),
except that Wini
only.
But
shortly after the opposition betwixt these two sides
grew to be so great, that our Cuthbert, Bishop of Lan-
disfarne, upon his death-bed required his followers that they
should " 8
hold no communion with them which did swerve
from the unity of the catholic peace, either by not cele-
brating Easter in its due time, or by living perversely ;"
and that they should rather take up his bones and remove
their place of habitation, than any way condescend to
" submit their necks unto the yoke of schismatics." For
the further maintaining of which breach also there were
made both by the Romans, and by the Saxons
certain decrees
that were guided by their institution. One of the instruc-
tions that the Romans gave them was this " 9 Ye must :

beware that causes be not referred to other provinces or


churches, which use another manner and another religion ;
whether to the Jews, which do serve the shadow of the law
rather than the truth, or to the Britons, who are con-

trary unto all men, and have cut themselves off from the
Roman manner and the unity of the Church, or to heretics,
although they should be learned in ecclesiastical causes and
well studied." And among the decrees made by some of
the Saxon bishops, which were to be seen in the library of
Sir Thomas Knevet, in Norfolk, and are still, I suppose,

preserved there by his heir, this is laid down for one:


" 10 Such as have received ordination from the
bishops of

8
Cum illis autem qui ab imitate catho- in ecclesiasticis causis docti et studiosi

licaepacis, vel pascha non suo tempore


fuerint. Ex Cod. Canonum Cotton, titu-

celebrando, vel perverse vivendo aberrant,


lorum 66.
10
vobis sit nulla communio, &c. Id. in Qui ordinati sunt a Scottorum vel
Vit. Cuthbert. cap. 39. Britannorum episcopis, qui in pascha vel
9 Institutio dicit Rom. Cavendumest tonsura catholicae non sunt adunati eccle-
ne ad alias provincias aut ecclesias refe- sia?, iterum a catholico episcopo manus
rantur causae, quae alio more et alia reli- impositione confirmentur. Similiter et

gione utantur ; sive ad Judaeos, qui um- ecclesiae,qu33 ab illis


episcopis ordinantur,
bras legismagis quam veritati deserviunt, aqua exorcizata aspergantur, et aliqua
aut Britones, qui omnibus contrarii sunt, collectione confirmentur. Licentiam quo-
et a Romano more et ab unitate ecclesias que non habemus eis poscentibus chris-
se absciderunt, aut haareticos, quamvis sint mam vel eucharistiam dare, ni ante con-
X.] OF THE OPPOSITION TO THE ROMAN PARTY. 613

the Scots or Britons, who in the matter of Easter and


tonsure are not united unto the Catholic Church, let them
be again by imposition of hands confirmed by a catholic
bishop. In like manner also let the churches that have been
ordered by those bishops be sprinkled with exorcised water,
and confirmed with some service. have no licence also We
to give unto them chrism or the eucharist, when they re-
quire it, unless they do first profess that they will remain
with us in the unity of the Church. And such likewise as
either of their nation, or of any other, shall doubt of their

baptism, let Thus did they.


them be baptized."
On how averse the British and the Irish
the other side,
were from having any communion with those of the Roman
party, the "complaint of Laurentius, Mellitus, and Justus,
before specified, doth sufficiently manifest. And the answer
is well known which
" 12 the seven British
bishops, and many
other most learned men" of the same nation, did return
unto the propositions made unto them by Austin the monk,
who was sent unto their parts with authority from Rome,
" 13
that they would perform none of them, nor at all admit
him for their archbishop." The Welsh chroniclers do fur-
ther relate, that Dinot, the Abbot of Bangor, produced
divers arguments at that time to shew that they did owe
him no and this " 14
We are
subjection, among others;
under the government of the Bishop of Kaer-leon upon
Usk, who, under God, is to oversee us, and cause us to
keep the way spiritual :" and Gotcelinus Bertinianus, in the
that for the "
15
Life of Austin, of their ceremo- authority

fessi fuerint velle se nobiscum esse in spondebant. Id. ibid. Tarn ipsum, quam
unitate ecclesiae. Et qui ex horum simi- ejus statuta, statim reversi spreverunt,
liter gente, vel quacunque, de baptismo nee ipsum pro archiepiscopo se habituros
suo dubitaverint, baptizentur. Decret. publice proclamabant. Girald.Cambrens.
Pontific. MS. cap. 9. De communica- Itinerar. Cambriae, lib. ii.
cap. 1.
14
tioneScottorum et
Britonum, qui in pascha In a Welsh manuscript, sometime
et tonsura catholici non sunt. belonging unto P. Mostein, gentleman.
11
Bed. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 4. 15
Auctorizabant suas ceremonias non
Septem Britonum episcopi, solum a sancto Eleutherio Papa, primo
1
et plures
j

viri doctissimi, maxime de nobilissimo |


institutore suo, ab ipsa pene infantia eccle-
eorum monasterio, quod vocatur lingua |
siae dicatas, verum a sanctis patribus suis
Anglorum Bancornaburg, cui Dinoot ab- i Dei amicis et
Apostolorum sequacibus
lias pracfuisse narratur. Bed. Hist. lib. ii. i
hactenus observatas; quas non deberent
cap. 2. i
mutare propter novos dogmatistas. Got-
13
llli nihil horum se facturos, neque |
celin. Monachus, in Vita Augustini, cap.
ilium pro archiepiscopo habituros csse re- ', 32, MS. in Bibliotheca Cottoniana.
614 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

nies" did allege " that they were not only delivered
they
unto them by St Eleutherius the Pope, their first instructor,
at the first infancy almost of the Church, but also hitherto
observed by their holy Fathers, who were the friends of
God and followers of the Apostles ;" and therefore " they
ought not to change them for any new dogmatists." But,
above all others, the British priests that dwelt in West
Wales abhorred the communion of these "new dogmatists"
above all Aldhelme, Abbot of Malmesbury,
measure, as
declareth at large in his Epistle sent to Geruntius, King of
Cornwall; where, among many other particulars, he sheweth,
16
that any of the Catholics (for so he calleth those of
if

own "
his side) did go to dwell among them, they would
not vouchsafe to admit them unto their company and society
1
before they first put them to forty days penance." Yea,
" 17 even to this saith who wrote his
day," Bede, History
in the year 731, " it is the manner of the Britons to hold
the faith and the religion of the English in no account
at all, nor to communicate with them in any thing more
than with Pagans."
Whereunto those verses of Taliessyn, honoured by the
Britons with the title of Ben Beirdh, that is,
" the chief of
the bards, or wise men," may be added, which shew that
he wrote after the coming of Austin into England, and not
fifty
or sixty years before, as others have imagined:
18
Gwae'r offeiriad byd
Nys engreifftia gwyd
Ac ny phregetha:
Gwae ny cheidw ey gail
Ac ef yn vigail,
Ac nys areilia:
Gwae ny cheidw ey dheuaid
Rhac bleidhie, Rhufeniaid
A'iffon gnwppa.
"
Wo be to that priest yborn,
That will not cleanly weed his corn,
And preach his charge among :

16
Si quilibet de nostris, id est, catho- 17
Quippe cum usque hodie moris sit
licis ad eos habitandi gratia perrexerint ; Britonum fidem religionemque Anglorum
non prius ad consortium sodalitatis suae pro nihilo habere, neque in aliquo eis
adsciscere dignantur, quam quadraginta magis communicare quam paganis. Bed.
dierum spatia in poenitendo peragere com- Hist. lib. ii. cap. 20.
18
pellantur. Aldhelm.Epist. adDomnonios. Chronicle of Wales, p. 254.
X.] OF THE OPPOSITION TO THE ROMAN PARTY. 615

Wo be to that shepherd, (I say),


That will not watch his fold alway,
As to his office doth belong:
Wo be to him that doth not keep
From Romish wolves his sheep,
With staff and weapon strong."

As also those others which shew that some


of Mantuan,
took the boldness to tax the of " folly," " impu-
Romans
"
dency," and stolidity," for standing so much upon matters
of human institution, that for the not admitting of them
they would break peace there where the law of God and
the doctrine first delivered
by Christ and his Apostles was
safely kept and maintained:

l9
Adde quod et patres ausi taxare Latinos,
Causabantur eos stulte, imprudenter, et sequo
Durius ad ritum Romso voluisse Britannos
Cogere, et antiquum tarn prsecipitanter amorem
Tarn stolido temerasse ausu. Concedere Roma
Debuit, aiebant, potius quam rumpere pacem,
Human! quse juris erant; modo salva maneret
Lex divina, fides, Christi doctrina, senatus
Quam primus tulit ore suo; quia tradita ab ipso
Christo erat, humanse doctore et lumine vitso.

By all that hath been said the vanity of Osullevan may


be seen, who feigneth the northern Irish, together with the
Picts and Britons, to have been so obsequious unto the

Bishop of Rome, that they reformed the celebration of Easter


by them formerly used, as soon as they understood what
the rite of the Roman Church was; whereas it is known
that, after the declaration thereof made by Pope Honorius
and the clergy of Rome, the northern Irish were nothing
moved therewith, but continued still their own tradition.
And therefore Bede findeth no other excuse for Bishop
Aidan herein, but that " 20 either he was ignorant of the
canonical time, or, if he knew it, that he was so overcome
with the authority of his own nation, that he did not follow
" 21 after the manner of his own
it;" that he did it nation;"

19
Baptist. Mantuan. Faster, lib. i.
agnitum sequeretur, devictus; non ap-
-"
Quod autem pascha non suo tempore probo ncc laudo. Bed. llistor. lib. iii.
obscrvabat, vel canonicum ejus tempus cap. 17-
21
i^norans, vel susc gentis auctoritate, nc More suac gentis, Ibid. cap. 3.
616 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

and that " 22 he could not keep Easter contrary to the cus-
tom of them which had sent him." His successor Finan
^contended more fiercely in the business with Ronan his
countryman, and declared himself "an open adversary" to
the Roman rite. Colman, that succeeded him, did tread
just in his steps, so far that, being put down in the Synod
of " for fear of his
Streansheal, yet country," as before
we have heard out of Stephen, the writer of the Life of
Wilfrid, he refused to conform himself, and chose rather
to forego his bishoprick than to submit himself unto the
Roman laws.

Colmanusque suas inglorius abjicit arces,


Malens Ausonias victus dissolvere leges,

saith Fridegodus. Neither did he go away alone, but 24 took


with him all his countrymen that he had gathered together
in Lindisfarne, or Holy Island; the Scottish monks also,
that were at Ripon in Yorkshire, 25 making choice rather
to quit their place, than to admit the observation of Easter
and the rest of the rites according to the custom of the
Church of Rome. And so did the matter rest among the
Irish about forty years after that, until their own country-
man 26
Adamnanus persuaded most of them to yield to the
custom received herein by all the churches abroad.
The Picts did the like not long after under King Naitan,
who " 27 by his regal authority commanded Easter to be
observed throughout all his provinces according to the cycle

of nineteen years, abolishing the erroneous period of eighty-


four years," which before they used, and caused " all priests
and monks to be shorn crown-wise" after the Roman manner.
The monks also of the island of Hy, or Y-Columkille,
22
Pascha contra morem eorum qui ip- v. cap. 20. See also lib. iii. cap. 25, where
sum miserant facere non potuit. Ibid. !

Humpum is misprinted for Hripum.


26
cap. 25. Ibid. cap. 16 et 22.
23 27
Id. ibid. Nee mora, quae dixerat, regia auc-
24 Statim namque jussu
Colmanus qui de Scotia erat episco- toritate perfecit.
pus, relinquens Britanniam, tulit secum publico mittebantur ad transcribendum,
omnes quos in Lindisfarnorum insula discendum, observandum per universas
congregaverat Scotos. Bed. lib. iv. Pictorum provincias circuli paschae de-
[

cap. 4. cennovennales ; omnia er-


obliteratis per
25 annorum cir-
Optione data, maluerunt loco cedere, roneis octoginta et quatuor

quam pascha catholicum ceterosque ritus culis. Attondebantur omnes in coronam


canonicos juxta Romanae et apostolicae ministri altaris ac monachi, &c. Ibid,
ecclesiae consuetudinem recipere. Id. lib. cap. 22.
X. OF THE OPPOSITION TO THE ROMAN PARTY. 617
28
by the persuasion of Ecgbert, an English priest that had
been bred in Ireland, in the year of our Lord 716 for-
sook the observation of Easter and the tonsure which they
had received from Columkille a hundred and fifty years
before, and followed the Roman rite, about eighty years
after the time of
Pope Honorius, and the sending of Bishop
Aidan from thence into England. The Britons in the time
29 30
of Bede retained still their old usage, until Elbodus,
who was the chief bishop of North Wales, and died in the

year of our Lord 809, as Caradoc of Lhancarvan recordeth,


brought in the Roman observation of Easter; which is the
31
cause his disciple Nennius designeth the time wherein
why
he wrote his history by the character of the ^nineteen years'*
cycle, and not of the other of eighty-four. But howsoever
North Wales did, it is very probable that West Wales,
which of all other parts was most eagerly bent against the
traditions of the Roman Church, stood out yet longer for :

we find in the Greek writers of the Life of Chrysostom,


" that certain
clergymen which dwelt in the isles of the
ocean" repaired " from the utmost borders" of the habita-
ble world unto Constantinople, in the days of Methodius,
who was patriarch there from the year 842 to the year 847,
to enquire of " ^certain ecclesiastical traditions, and the

perfect and exact computation of Easter." Whereby it


appeareth that these questions were kept still afoot in these

islands, and that the resolution of the Bishop of Constan-

tinople was sought for from hence, as well as the deter-


mination of the Bishop of Rome, who is now made the only
oracle of the world.
Neither is it here to be omitted, that whatsoever broils
did pass betwixt our Irish that were not subject to the see
of Rome, and those others that were of the Roman com-

58
Id. lib. iii. cap. 4, et lib. v. cap. 23. 32
Ab adventu Patricii in jam dictam
29
Id. lib. v. cap. 23 et 24. insulam (Hiberniam scilicet) usque ad
30 See the
Chronicle of Wales, p. 17, cyclum decennovennalem in quo sumus
18, and Humfr. Lhuyd. Fragment. Britan. 22 sunt cycli, id est 421, et sunt duo
Descript. fol. 55. b. anni in Ogdoade usque in hunc annum.
31
Ego Nennius, sancti Elbodi discipu- Idem.
Nenn. 33 "EveKo. Tiviav eKK\rj<riaaTiKiav irapa-
lus, aliqua excerpta scribere curavi.
MS. in publica Cantabrig. Academ. Bib- d6<retav, T6\eta9 TC TOV ira<T')(a\iov KOI
liotheca, ubi alia exemplaria habent :
Ego d*c/Di/3ou KaTaXfji^ecus. Chrysost. Tom.
Nennius (vcl Ninnius) Elvodugi discipu- vni. edit. Henr. Savil. p. 321, 6, et in
lus. Notis, col. 966, 5.
618 ItELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

munion, in the succeeding ages they of the one side were


esteemed to be saints as well as they of the other; Aidan,
for example, and Finan, who were counted
ringleaders of
the Quartadeciraan party, as well as Wilfrid and Cuthbert,
who were so violent against it. Yet now-a-days men are
made to believe, that out of the communion of the Church
of Rome nothing but hell can be looked for, and that sub-
jection to the Bishop of Rome, as to the visible head of
the universal Church, is required as a matter necessary to
salvation: which, if it may go current for good divinity,
" ^twelve
the case is go hard, not only with the
like to
hundred" British monks of Bangor, who were martyred in
one day by Edelfride, King of Northumberland, whom our
Annals style by the name of " ^the saints," but also with
St Aidan and St Finan, who deserve to be honoured by the
English nation with as venerable a remembrance as (I do
not say Wilfrid and Cuthbert, but) Austin the monk and
his followers. For by the ministry of x Aidan was the king-
dom of Northumberland recovered from paganism, whereunto
belonged then, beside the shire of Northumberland and the
lands beyond it unto
Edinburgh Frith, Cumberland also
and Westmoreland, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and the bishoprick
of Durham; and by the means of 37 Finan not only the
kingdom of the East Saxons, which contained Essex, Mid-
dlesex, and half of Hertfordshire, regained, but also the
large kingdom of Mercia converted first unto Christianity,
which comprehended under it Gloucestershire, Herefordshire,
Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Rutlandshire,
Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Huntingdonshire, Bedford-
shire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Derby-
shire, Shropshire, Nottinghamshire, Cheshire, and the other
half of Hertfordshire.
The
Scottish, that professed no subjection to the Church
of Rome, were they that sent preachers for the conversion
of these countries, and ordained bishops to govern them ;
^
namely, Aidan, Finan, and Colman, successively, for the
39
kingdom of Northumberland; for the East Saxons, Cedd,

34 36
Bed. Hist. lib. iii. cap. 3 et
Bed. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 2. 6.
35
Ann. Dom. 612 (vel 613) Bellum w Ibid. cap. 21, 22, 24.
38
Cairelegion, ubiSanctioccisisunt, Annal. Ibid. cap. 3, 5, 17, 25, 26.
39
Ultan. MS. Ibid, cap. 22, 25.
X.] OF THE OPPOSITION TO THE ROMAN PARTY. 619

brother to Ceadda, the Bishop of York beforemcntioned ;


I0
for the Middle Angles, which inhabited Leicestershire, and
the Murcians, " 41
the paucity of priests," saith
Diuma, (for
" constrained one
Bede, bishop to be appointed over two
people,'") and after him Cellach and Trumhere. And these
with their followers, notwithstanding their division from the
42
See of Rome, were for their extraordinary sanctity of life
and painfulness in preaching the Gospel, wherein they went
far beyond those of the other side, that afterward thrust
them out and entered in upon their labours, exceedingly
reverenced by all that knew them Aidan especially, who, ;

" he could not " con-


"although keep Easter," saith Bede,
trary to the manner of them which had sent him, yet he
was careful diligently to perform the works of faith and
godliness and love, according to the manner used by all
holy men. Whereupon he was worthily beloved of all, even
of them also who thought otherwise of Easter than he did,
and was had in reverence not only by them that were of
meaner rank, but also by the bishops themselves, Honorius
of Canterbury, and Felix of the East Angles." Neither
did Honorius and Felix any other way carry themselves
herein than their predecessors Laurentius, Mellitus, and
Justus, had done before them, who, writing unto the bishops
of Ireland that dissented from the Church of Rome in the
celebration of Easter and many other things, made no scruple
to prefix this loving and respectful superscription to their
letters: " To our lords and most dear brethren the bishops
44

or abbots throughout all Scotland, Laurentius, Mellitus, and


Justus, bishops, the servants of the servants of God." For
howsoever Ireland at that time 45 received not the same

10
Ibid. cap. 21, 24. Honorio Cantuariorum et Felice Orienta-
41
Paucitas enim sacerdotum cogebat lium Anglorum, venerationi habitus est.
unum antistitem duobus populis praefici. Ibid. cap. 25.
Ibid. cap. 21. 44
Dominis carissimis fratribus episco-
42
Ibid. cap. 3, 4, 5, 17, 26.
43 pis vel abbatibus per universam Scotiam,
Etsi pascha contra morem eorum qui
Laurentius, Mellitus, et Justus episcopi,
ipsum miserant, facere non potuit ; opera serviservorum Dei. Id. lib. ii. cap. 4.
tamen fidei, pietatis et dilectionis, juxta
45
morem omnibus sanctis consuetum dili- Gens quanquam absque reliquarum
genter exequi curavit. Unde ab omnibus gentium legibus, tamen in Christian! vi-
etiam his qui dc pascha aliter sentiebant, goris dogmate florens, omnium vicinarum
merito diligebatur, nee solum a mediocri- gentium fidem praepollet. Jon. Vit. Co-
bns, vcrum ab lumban. cap, 1.
ipsis quoquc cpiscopis,
620 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHA1\

" laws" wherewith " other nations" were


governed, yet it
so "flourished in the
vigour of Christian doctrine," as Abbot
Jonas testifieth, that " it exceeded the faith of all the neigh-
bour nations," and in that respect was generally had in
honour by them.

CHAPTER XI.

OF THE TEMPORAL POWER WHICH THE POPE'S FOLLOWERS WOULD


DIRECTLY ENTITLE HIM UNTO OVER THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND;
TOGETHER WITH THE INDIRECT POWER WHICH HE CHALLENGETH IN
ABSOLVING SUBJECTS FROM THE OBEDIENCE WHICH THEY OWE TO
THEIR TEMPORAL GOVERNORS.

IT now remaineth, that in the place we should con-last


sider the Pope's power indisposing the temporal state of
this kingdom, which either
directly or indirectly, by hook
or crook, this grand usurper would draw unto himself.
First, therefore, Cardinal Allen would have us to know,
" the See
J
that Apostolic hath an old claim unto the sove-
reignty of the country of Ireland, and that before the
covenants passed between King John and the same see.
Which challenges," saith he, " princes commonly yield not
up, by what ground soever they come." What princes use
to yield or not yield, I leave to the scanning of those unto
whom princes'* matters do belong; for the Cardinal's prince,
I dare be bold to say, that if it be not his use to play
fast and loose with other princes, the matter is not now to
do: whatsoever right he could pretend to the temporal state
of Ireland, he hath transferred it, more than once, unto the

kings of England; and when the ground of his claim shall


be looked into, it will be found so frivolous and so ridi-

culous, that we need not care three chips whether he yield


it
up or keep it to himself. For whatsoever become of his
idle challenges, the crown of England hath otherwise ob-
tained an undoubted right unto the sovereignty of this

country, partly by conquest, prosecuted at first upon occa-


sion of a social war, partly by the several submissions of

1
Allen's Answer to the Execution of Justice in England, p. 140.
XI.] OF THE POPE'S TEMPORAL POWER OVER IRELAND. 621

the chieftains of the land made afterwards. For " 2


whereas
it is free men, although they have been formerly
for all

quit from all


subjection, to renounce their own right, yet
now in these our days," saith Giraldus Cambrensis, in his
" all the
History of the Conquest of Ireland, princes of
Ireland did voluntarily submit and bind themselves with
firm bonds of faith and oath unto Henry the Second, King
of England." The like might be said of the general sub-
missions made in the days of King Richard the Second and

King Henry the Eighth, to speak nothing of the prescrip-


tion of divers hundreds of years' possession, which was the
3
plea that Jephtha used to the Ammonites, and is, indeed,
4
the best evidence that the Bishop of Rome's own proctors
do produce for their master's right to Rome itself.
For the Pope's direct dominion over Ireland two titles
are brought forth, beside those Covenants of King John
mentioned by Allen, which he that hath any understanding
in our state knoweth to be clearly void and worth nothing.
The one is taken from a special grant supposed to be made
by the inhabitants of the country at the time of their first

conversion unto Christianity; the other from a right which


5
the Pope challengeth unto himself over all islands in general.
The former of these was devised of late by an Italian in
the reign of King Henry the Eighth ; the latter was found
out in the days of King Henry the Second, before whose
time not one footstep doth appear in all antiquity of any
claim that the Bishop of Rome should make to the dominion
of Ireland; no, not in the Pope's own records, which have
been curiously searched by Nicolaus Arragonius and other
ministers of his, who have purposely written of the parti-
culars of his temporal estate. The Italian of whom I speak
is
Polydore Virgil, he that composed the book de Inventori-
bus Rerum, of the first " inventors of things ;" among whom
he himself may challenge a place for this invention, if the

2
Cum juri suo renunciare liberum sit
3
Judges xi. 26.

cuilibet, quanquam
subjectionis cujus- 4
Genebrard. Chronograph, lib. iii. in
libet hactenus immunes, his tamen hodie
Sylvest. i. Bellarmin. de Roman. Pontif.
nostris diebus Anglorum Regi Henrico lib. v. cap. 9, in fine.
secundo omnes Hiberniae principes firmis
5
Insulas omnes sibi speciali quodam
fidei sacramentique vinculis se
sponte sub-
jure vendicat. Girald. Cambr. Hibern.
miserunt. Girald. Cambrens. Hibern.
Expugnat. lib. ii. cap. 7.
Expugnat. lib. ii.
cap. 7-
622 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT HUSH. [CHAP.

inventors of lies be admitted to have any room in that


company. This man, being sent over by the Pope into
6
England for the collecting of his Peter-pence, undertook
the writing of the history of that nation; wherein he
forgat
not by the way to do the best service he could to his lord
that had employed him thither. There he telleth an idle
tale how the Irish, being moved to accept
Henry the Second
for their king, " 7 did deny that this could be done otherwise
than by the Bishop of Rome's authority; because," forsooth,
" that from the had
very beginning, afterthey accepted
Christian religion, they had yielded themselves and all that

they had into his power. And they did constantly affirm,"
saith this fabler, " that they had no other lord beside the

Pope; of which do brag."


also they yet
The by two Englishmen, that
Italian is followed herein
wished the Pope's advancement as much as he, Edmund
Campion and Nicholas Sanders the one whereof writeth, :

that " immediately after Christianity was planted here, the


whole island with one consent gave themselves not only
into the spiritual, but also into the temporal jurisdiction
of the See of Rome :"
the other in Polydore's own words,
" 9 the Irish from the
though he name him not, that begin-
ning, presently after they had received the Christian religion,
gave up themselves and all that they had into the power
of the Bishop of Rome;" and that until the time of King
Henry the Second they did " acknowledge no other supreme

prince of Ireland beside the Bishop of Rome alone." For


confutation of which dream we need not have recourse to
our own chronicles ; the bull of Adrian the Fourth, wherein
he giveth liberty to King Henry the Second to enter upon
Ireland, sufficiently discovereth the vanity thereof. For

6
Nos hanc olim quaesturam aliquot etiam nunc jactitant. Id. lib. xiii. Hist.

per annos gessimus ; ej usque muneris ejusd.


8
obeundi causa, primum in Angliam veni- Camp. History of Ireland, lib. ii.

mus. Poly dor. Virgil. Anglic. Histor. cap. 1.


9 initio statim post Christia-
lib. iv. Hiberni
nam religionem acceptam se suaque om-
7 Id Hiberni posse auctoritate
fieri, nisi
Romani negabant, quod jam
Pontificis, nia in Pontificis Romani ditionem dede-
inde ab post Christianam religio-
initio, rant ; nee quenquam alium supremum
nem acceptam, sese ac omnia sua in ejus Hibernise principem ad illud usque tern-
ditionem dedidissent; atque constanter pus praeter unum Romanum Pontificem
affirmabant, non alium habere se Domi- agnoverunt. Sander. Schism. Anglican,
num, prater ipsum pontificem ;
id quod lib.i. ad ann. 1542.
XI.] OF THE POPE'S TEMFOKAL POWER OVER IRELAND. 623

he there shewing what right the Church of Rome pretended


unto Ireland, maketh no mention at all of this, which had
been the fairest and clearest title that could be alleged, if
any such had been then existent in rernm natura, but is
fain to fly unto a farfetched interest which he saith the
Church of Rome hath unto all Christian islands. " 10
Truly,"
saith he to the king, " there is no doubt but that all islands
unto which Christ the Sun of Righteousness hath shined, and
which have received the instructions of the Christian faith,
do pertain to the right of Saint Peter and the holy Church
of Rome ; which your nobleness also doth acknowledge."
If you would further understand the ground of this
strange claim, whereby all Christian islands at a clap are
challenged to be parcel of St Peter's patrimony, you shall
have it from Johannes Sarisburiensis, who was most inward
with Pope Adrian, and obtained from him this very grant
whereof now we are speaking: " "At my request," saith
" he
he, granted Ireland to the illustrious King of England,
Henry the Second, and gave it to be possessed by right
of inheritance, as his own letters do testify unto this day.
For all islands of ancient right are said to belong to the
Church of Rome by the donation of Constantine, who
founded and endowed the same." But will you see what a
goodly title here is in the mean time ? First, the donation of
Constantine hath been long since discovered to be a notorious
forgery, and is rejected by all men of judgment as a senseless
fiction. Secondly, in the whole context of this forged dona-
tion I find mention made of islands in one place only ; 12 where
no more power is given to the Church of Rome over them,
than in general over the whole continent, by east and by

10
Sane omnesinsulas, quibus sol jus- fundavit et dotavit, dicuntur ad Roma-
titiseChristus illuxit, et quae documenta nam ecclesiam pertinere. Johan. Saris-
fidei Christianae susceperunt, ad jus S. buriens. Metalogic. lib. iv. cap. 42.
Romano: 12
Petri et sacrosanctae ecclesiae, Per nostram imperialem jussionem
quod tua etiam nobilitas recognoscit, non sacram, tarn in oriente quam in occidente,
est dubium pertinere. Bull. Adrian, iv. vel etiam septentrionali et meridiana plaga,
ad Henr. n. Angl. Reg. videlicet in Jud tea, Graecia, Asia, Thracia,
11
Ad pieces meas illustri Regi Anglo- Africa et Italia, vel diversis insulis nostra
rum Henrico secundo concessit, et dedit largitate eis libertatem concessimus; ea
Hiberniamjure haereditario possidendam ; prorsus ratione, ut per manus beatissimi
sicut literae ipsius testantur in hodiernum patris nostri Sylvestrf Pontificis successo-
diem. Nam omnes insulae, de jure anti- rumque ejus omnia disponantur. Edict.
quo, ex donatione Constantini, qui earn Constantin.
624 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT HUSH. [CHAP.

west, by north and by south, and in particular over Judaea,


Grsecia, Asia, Thracia, and Africa; which use not to pass
in the account of St Peter's temporal patrimony. Thirdly,
it doth not appear that Constantine himself had any interest
in the kingdom of Ireland how then could he confer it
:

upon another? Some words there be in an oration of


13
Eumenius the rhetorician, by which peradventure it
may
be collected that his father Constantius bare Fsome stroke
here; but that the island was ever possessed by the Romans,
or accounted a parcel of the empire, cannot be proved by

any sufficient testimony of antiquity. Fourthly, the late


writers that are of another mind, as Pomponius Laetus,
14
Cuspinian, and others, do yet affirm withal, that in the
division of the empire after Constantine's death, Ireland
was assigned unto Constantinus the eldest son ; which will

hardly stand with this donation of the islands supposed to


be formerly made unto the Bishop of Rome and his suc-
cessors. Pope Adrian therefore, and John of Salisbury
his solicitor, had need seek some better warrant for the
title of Ireland than the donation of Constantine.
John Harding, in his Chronicle, saith that the Kings of
of England have right

15
To Ireland also, by King Henry (le fitz
Of Maude, daughter of first King Henry)
That conquered it, for their great heresy.

Which in another place he expresseth more at large in this


manner :

King Henry then conquered all Ireland

By papal doom, there of his royalty,


The profits and revenues of the land,
The domination, and the sovereignty.
For error which again the spiritualty
They held full long, and would not been correct
Of heresies, with which they were infect.

14
13
Ultra oceanum vero quid erat praeter Pomp. Last, in Roman. Histor. Com-
Britanniam ? Quae a vobis ita recuperata pend. Jo. Cuspinian. in Caesarib. Seb.
est, ut illae quoque nationes terminis Munster. in Cosmograph. lib. ii.
ejusdem insulae cohaerentes vestris nutibus 15
Harding Chronic, cap. 241.
obsequantur. Eumen. Panegyric, ad Con- 16
Ibid. cap. 132.
stant.
XI.]
OF THE POPF/S TEMPORAL POWER OVER IRELAND. 625

Philip Osullevan, on the other side, doth not only deny


17
that Ireland was infected with any heresy, but would
18
also have us believe that the Pope never intended to confer
the lordship of Ireland upon the kings of England. For
where it is said in Pope Adrian's bull,
" 19 Let the
people
of that land receive thee, and reverence thee as a lord,"
20
the meaning thereof is, saith this glosser, Let them reve-
rence thee " as a prince worthy of great honour ; not as
lord of Ireland, but as a deputy appointed for the col-
It is true indeed that
lecting of the ecclesiastical tribute."
King Henry the Second, to the end he might the more
easily the Pope's good will for his entering upon
obtain
" the
Ireland, did voluntarily offer unto him payment of
a yearly pension of one penny out of every house" in the
country ; which, for aught that I can learn, was the first
" ecclesiastical tribute" that ever came unto the
Pope's cof-
fers out of Ireland. But that King Henry got nothing else
by the bargain but the bare office of collecting the Pope's
Smoke-silver, (for so we called it here, when we paid it,) is
so dull a conceit, that I do somewhat wonder how Osullevan
himself could be such a blockhead as not to discern the
senselessness of it.

What
the king sought for and obtained, is sufficiently
21
declared by them that writ the history of his reign. In
the year of our Lord 1155 the first bull was sent unto him

by Pope Adrian; the sum whereof is thus laid down in a


second bull directed unto him by Alexander the Third, the
" **
immediate successor of the other Following the steps :

of reverend Pope Adrian, and attending the fruit of your

22
17
Osullevan. Histor. Catholic. Iber- Venerabilis Adriani Papas vestigiis

niae, Tom. n. lib. i.


cap. 7- inhaerentes, vestrique desiderii fructum
18
Ibid. cap. 4, 5, 9. and lib. ii. cap. 3. attendentes, concessionem ejusdem super
19
Illius terrae populus te recipiat, et Hibernici regni dominio vobis indulto,
sicut dominum veneretur. Bull. Adrian. salva beato Petro et sacrosanctae ecclesise
IV. I
Romanae, sicut in Anglia, sic in H ibernia,
20 de singulis domibus annua unius denarii
Sicut dominum veneretur, id est,
ut principem dignum magno honore ; non pensione, ratam habemus et confirmamus.
dominum Iberniae, sed praefectum causa Bull. Alexandri in. apud Giraldum
colligendi tributi ecclesiastic!. Osulle- Cambrens. Histor. Hibern. Expugnat.
van. Hist. Ibern. fol. .59. b. in margine. lib. ii. cap. 6. in Codicibus MS. (in edito
Robert, de Monte. Roger, de Wen-
21
enim caput hoc mancum est) et Jo. Ros-
dover. Matth. Paris, et Nicol. Trivett. in sum Warvicensem, in Tract, de Terris
Chronic, ann. 1155. Corona? Angliae annexis.
R R
RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAF,

we ratify and confirm his grant concerning the dominion


desire,
of theKINGDOM of Ireland conferred upon you reserving ;

unto St Peter and the holy Church of Rome, as in England


so in Ireland, the yearly pension of one penny out of every
house." In this sort did Pope Adrian, as much as lay in
him, give Ireland unto King Henry, hcereditario jure possi-
" to be
dendam, possessed by right of inheritance ;" and
withal " 23 sent unto him a ring of gold set with a fair
emerald, for his investiture in the right thereof," as Johannes
Sarisburiensis, who was the principal agent betwixt them
both in this business, doth expressly testify. After this,
in the year 1171? the king himself came hither in person;
where the archbishops and bishops of Ireland " 24 received
him for their KING and Lord." The king, saith John
" 25 received letters from
Brampton, every archbishop and
bishop, with their seals hanging upon them in the manner
of an indenture, confirming the KINGDOM of Ireland unta
him and his heirs, and bearing witness that they in Ireland
had ordained him and his heirs to be their KINGS and lords
for ever." At Waterford, saith Roger Hoveden, " ^all
the archbishops, bishops, and abbots of Ireland, came unto
the King of England, and received him for KING and Lord
of Ireland ; swearing fealty to him and to his heirs, and

power to reign over them for ever and hereof they gave ;

him their instruments. The kings also and princes of

23
Annulum quoque per me transmisit Hiberniae sibi et haeredibus suis confir-
aureum, smaragdo optimo decoratum, quo mantes, et testimonium perhibentes ipsos
fieret investitura juris in gerenda Hiber- in Hibernia eum et haeredes suos sibi in

nia; idemque adhuc annulus in curiali reges et dominos in perpetuum consti-


archio publico custodiri jussus est. Jo. tuisse. Jo. Brampton, ibid.
26 Venerunt
Sarisbur. Metalogic. lib. iv. cap. 42, de ibidem ad Regem Angliae
quo consulendus etiam est Giraldus omnes archiepiscopi, episcopi, abbates
Cambrens. Hibern. Expugnat. lib. ii. totius Hiberniae, et receperunt eum in
cap. 6. regem et dominum Hiberniae ; jurantes
24
In regem et dominum receperunt. ei et haeredibus suis fidelitatem, et reg-

Roger Wendover, et Matth. Paris, in nandi super eos potestatem in perpetuum ;


Historia majori, ann. 1171. Roger Hove- et inde dederunt ei chartas suas. Exem-
den, in posteriore parte Annalium. Johan. plo autem clericorum, praedicti reges et
Brampton in Historia Joralanensi et Bar- principes Hiberniae receperunt simili
tholomaeus de Cotton, in Histor. Anglor. modo Henricum Regem Angliae in do-
MS. minum et regem Hiberniae; et homines
25 sui devenerunt, et ei et haeredibus suis
Recepit ab unoquoque archiepiscopo
et episcopo literas, cum sigillis suis in fidelitatem juraverunt contra omnes ho-
modum chartae pendentibus, regnum mines. Rog. Hoveden, ad ann. 1171.
XI. J OF THE POPE'S TEMPORAL POWER OVER IRELAND. 627

Ireland, by the example of the clergy, did in like manner


receive Henry, King of England, for Lord and KING of
Ireland ;" and became " his men," or
" did him
homage,
1'
and swore fealty to him and his heirs against all men.
These things were presently after confirmed in the
national Synod held at Cashel ; the acts whereof in Giraldus
Cambrensis are thus concluded: " 27 For it is fit and most
meet, that as Ireland by God's appointment hath gotten
a lord and a king from England, so also they should from
1
thence receive a better form of living/ King Henry also
at the same time " 28
sent a transcript of the instruments
of all archbishops and bishops of Ireland unto Pope
the
11
Alexander, who, by his apostolical authority, (for so was
" did confirm
it in those
days of darkness esteemed to be,)
the KINGDOM of Ireland unto him and his heirs, according
to the form of the instruments of the archbishops and
" 29 and made them KINGS thereof for
1

bishops of Ireland,'
11
ever. The king also ^obtained further from Pope Alex-
" that it
ander, might be lawful for him to make which
of his sons he pleased KING of Ireland, and to crown him

accordingly; and to subdue the kings and great ones of


11
that land which would not subject themselves unto him.

Whereupon, in a grand Council held at Oxford in the year


of our Lord 1177, " 31 before the bishops and peers of the
11

kingdom he constituted his son John KING of Ireland,


"
^according to that grant and confirmation of Pope Alex-

27
Dignum etenim et justissimum est, ^ Perquisierat ab Alexandra summo
ut sicut dominum et regem ex Anglia Pontifice, quod liceret ei filium suum
sortita est divinitus Hibernia, sic etiam quern vellet Regem Hiberniae facere, et
|

exinde vivendi formam accipiant melio- similiter coronare ; ac reges et poteutes


rem. Girald. Cambrens. Hibern. Ex- ejusdem terrse, qui subjectionem ei
pugnat. lib. cap. 34.
i. I
facere nollent, debellare. Id. ad aim.
28
Rex Anglia misit transcriptum char- 1177.
tarum umversorum archiepiscoporum et
episcoporum Hiberniae ad Alexandrum
31
Johannem filium suum coram ^
Papam;
confirmavit
et

illi
ipse
et
auctontate
haeredibus suis
apostohca
regnum
|

^^
copis et

^
regm
comtituit>
Coventrensi
sui principibus

in
M< ibid>
Regem
J*~
ejusdem anni Hig _
Hiberniae, secundum formam chartarum .

archiepiscoporum et episcoporum Hiber-


32
Constituit Johannem filium suum
nia;. Rog. Hoveden.
in Hibernia, concessione et confir-
29
Nam summus Pontifex regnum illud *egem
matione Alexandri summi Pontificis.
sibi et haredibus suis auctoritate aposto-
lica confirmavit; et in perpetuum eos *** Hoveden, Annal. part, ii.adaniu
constituit inde reges. Jo. Brampton. H77-
RR2
628 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

ander." And
to make the matter yet more sure, in the ,

year 1186, he obtained a new licence from Pope Urban the


" 33 that one of his
Third, sons, whom he himself would,
should be crowned for the KINGDOM of Ireland :" and this
" confirm
the Pope did not only by his bull," but also the
year following purposely sent over Cardinal Octavian and
34
Hugo de Nunant, or Novant, his legates, into Ireland, to
crown John the king's son there.

By all this we may see how far King Henry the Second

proceeded in this business much note


; which I do not so
to convince the stolidity of Osullevan, who would fain per-
suade fools that he was preferred only to be collector of
the Pope's Peter-pence, as to shew that Ireland was at
that time esteemed a kingdom, and the kings of England
accounted no less than kings thereof. And therefore 35 Paul
the Fourth needed not make all that noise, and trouble " ^the
' 1
whole court of heaven with the matter, when in the year
1555 he took upon him, by his apostolical authority, such
I am sure as none of the
Apostles of Christ did ever assume
unto themselves, to erect Ireland unto the title and dignity
of a kingdom whereas he might have found, even in his
:

own 37
Roman
Provincial, that Ireland was reckoned among
the kingdoms of Christendom before he was born ; inso-
much that in the year 1417, when the legates of the King
of England and the French king's ambassadors fell at vari-
ance in the Council of Constance for precedency, the

33
Ab eo impetravit, quod unus quern Philippo Rege et Maria Regina nobis
vellet de filiis suis coronaretur de regno super hoc humiliter supplicantibus, de
Hiberniae, et hoc confirmavit ei dominus fratrum nostrorum consilio et apostolic^
Papa bulla sua ; et in argumentum volun- potestatis plenitudine, apostolica auctori-
tatis et confirmationis suae, misit ei coro- tate insulam Hiberniae in regnum per-
nam de penna pavonis auro contextam. petuo erigimus ; ac titulo, dignitate,
Id. ad ann. 1185. honore, facultatibus, juribus, insigniis,
34
Quibus ipse commisit legatiam in praerogativis, antelationibus, praeeminen-
Hiberniam, ad coronandum ibi Johannem tiis regiis, ac quibus alia Christi fidelium

filium regis. Sed dominus rex corona- regna utuntur, potiuntur, et gaudent, ac
tionem illam distulit. Id. ad ann. 1187. uti, potiri, et gaudere poterunt quomodo
35
Paulus iv. nostris temporibus Hi- libet, in futurum insignimus et decora-
berniam insulam in regni titulum ac dig- mus. Bulla Pauli iv. in Rotulo Paten-
nitatem erexit. Gabutius in Vita Pii v. tium, ann. 2 et 3 Philippi et Mariae, in
36
Ad omnipotentis Dei laudem et glo- Cancellaria Hiberniae.
37 Provinciale ex archivis Cancellariae
riam, ac gloriosissimse ejus genitricis Vir-
ginis totiusque curias coelestis
Mariae, Apostolicae edit. Tomo n. Tractat. Doc-
honorem, et fidei Catholicae exaltationem, tor, fol. 344, (impress. Venet. ann. 1548.)
XI.] OF THE POPE^S TEMPORAL POWER OVER IRELAND. 629

English orators, among other arguments, alleged this also


themselves:" *It is well known, that
for according to
Albertus Magnus, and Bartholomaeus in his book de Pro-
prietatibus Rerum, the whole world being divided into
three parts, to wit, Asia, Afric, and Europe, Europe is

divided into four kingdoms; namely, the Roman for the


third the
first, Constantinopolitan for the second, the
the

kingdom of Ireland, which is now translated unto the Eng-


lish, and the fourth the kingdom of Spain ; whereby it

appeareth, that the King of England and his kingdom


are
of the more eminent ancient kings and kingdoms of all
Europe ; which prerogative the kingdom of France is not
said to obtain." this have I here inserted the more
And
willingly, because maketh something for the honour of
it

my country, to which I confess I am very much devoted,


and in the printed acts of the Council it is not commonly to
be had.
But now cometh forth Osullevan again, and, like a
39
little
fury, flieth upon the English-Irish priests of his
own religion which, in the late rebellion of the Earl of
did " not fetched out
Tyrone, deny that hellish doctrine,
of hell for the destruction of Catholics, that it is lawful
for Catholics to bear arms and fight for heretics against
Catholics and their country ;" or rather, if you will
have it in plainer terms, that it is lawful for them of
the Romish religion to bear arms and fight for their

sovereign and fellow-subjects that are of another pro-


fession, against those of their own religion that traitor-

ously rebel against their prince and country. And to shew

38
Satis constat, secundum Albertum Constant. Sess. 28, MS. in Bibliotheca

Magnum et Bartholomaeum de Proprieta- Regia. See the Book in the Cottonian


iibus Rerum, quod toto mundo in tres Library, Nero, in thin folio, collected by
partes diviso, videlicet Asiam, Africam, the Cardinal of Arragon, &c.
Cujus mali maxima culpa in aliquot
39
et Europam, Europa in quatuor dividitur

regna; primum videlicet Romanum, se- Anglo-Ibernos sacerdotes jure transferen-


cundum Constantinopolitanum, tertium da est, qui tartareum dogma ab orco in
regnum Hiberniae, quod jam translatum Catholicorum perniciem emissum non ne-
est in Anglicos, et quartum regnum Hi- gabant, licere Catholicis contra Catholi-
spaniae. Ex quo patet, quod Rex Angliae cos et suam patriam pro haereticis gerere

et regnum suum sunt de eminentioribus arm.t et dimicare. Philip. Osullevan,


antiquioribus regibus et regnis totius Hist. Catholic. Iberniae, Tom. iv. lib.

Europae ; quam praerogativam regnum iii. cap. .% fol. 2f>3, edit. Ulissipon. ann,
Franciae non fertur obtinere. Act. G'oncil. 1621.
630 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

" 40
how mad and how venomous a doctrine they did bring"
" that exhorted the
(these be the caitiff's own terms) laity
to follow the queen's side," he setteth down the censure of
the doctors of the University of Salamanca and Valladolid,

published in the year 1603, for the justification of that


rebellion, and the declaration of Pope Clement the Eighth's
" 41 the
letters touching the same, wherein he signifieth that
English ought to be set upon no less than the Turks; and
imparteth the same favours unto such as set upon them,
that he doth unto such as fight against the Turks." Such
wholesome directions doth the Bishop of Rome give unto
those that will be ruled by him; far different, I wis, from
that holy doctrine wherewith the Church of Rome was at
42
first seasoned Let every soul be subject
by the Apostles:
unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God,
was the lesson that St Paul taught to the ancient Romans.
Where if it be demanded, " 43 Whether that power also
which persecuteth the servants of God, impugneth the faith,
and subverteth religion, be of God ?" our countryman Sedu-
lius will teach us to answer with " even such
Origen, that
a power as that is given of God for the revenge of the
evil and the praise of the good;" although he were as
wicked as either Nero among the Romans, or Herod among
the Jews, the one whereof most cruelly persecuted the
Christians, the other Christ himself.
And yet, when the one of them swayed the sceptre,
St Paul told the Christian Romans, that they ^must needs
be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience
sake ; and of the causeless fear of the other these verses
40
Haec est Academiarum censura, qua pugnantes prosequitur ; quis dubitet, bel-
liquido constat, quanta ignoratione et ca- lum ab Anglis adversus exercitum Catho-
ligine erraverint illi Iberni, qui in hoc licum omnino iniquum geri ? Censur.
bello Protestantibus opera tulerunt, et Doc. Salamantic. et Vallisolet. de Hiber-*
Catholicos oppugnarunt; quamque in- ma Bello.
sanam et venenosam doctrinam attulerint 42
Rom. xiii. 1.
nonnulli doctiores vulgo habiti, qui secu-
43
lares homines ad regmae partes sequendas Quid? et ilia potestas, quse servos
Dei persequitur, fidem impugnat, religio-
exhortati, a fide tuenda averterunt. Id.
Tom. in. lib. viii. cap. 7, fol. 204. nem subvertit, a Deo est ? Ad quod re-
41
Cum enim Pontifex dicat Anglos spondendum, quod etiam talis potestas a
Catholicam religionem pugnare,
aclversus
Deo data est, ad vindictam quidem malo-
eosque non minus ac Turcas oppugnari rum, laudem vero bonorum. Sedul. in

debere Rom. xiii.


; eisdemque gratiis eos oppugnan-
44
tes prosequatur, quibus contra Turcas Rom. xiii. 5.
XI.] OF THE POPF/S TEMPORAL POWER OVER IRELAND. 631

of Sedulius are solemnly sung in the Church of Home even


unto this day :

45
Herodes hostis impie,
Christum venire quid times?
Non eripit mortalia,
Qui regna dat coelestia.

'*
Why, wicked Herod, dost thou fear,
And at Christ's coming frown?
The mortal he takes not away,
That gives the heavenly crown."

A better paraphrase whereof you cannot have than this,


which Claudius hath inserted into his collections upon St
Matthew: " l; That King which is born doth not come to
overcome kings by fighting, but to subdue them after a
wonderful manner by dying; neither is he born to the end
that he may succeed thee, but that the world may faith-

fully believe in him. For he is come, not that he may


fight being alive, but that he
being slain; may triumph
nor that he may with gold get an army unto himself out
of other nations, but that he may shed his precious blood
for the saving of the nations. Vainly didst thou by envying
fear him to be thy successor, whom by believing thou

oughtest to seek as thy Saviour; because if thou didst


believe in him thou shouldst reign with him, and as thou
hast received a temporal kingdom from him, thou shouldst
also receive from him an everlasting. For the kingdom of
this Child is not of this world, but by him it is that men
do reign in this world. He is the wisdom of God, which

45 Acrostich. de Vita
Sedul. in Hymno accepistitemporale regnum, acciperes
Christ! . etiam sempiternum. Hujus enim pueri
46
Rex iste qui natus est, non venit reges regnum non est de hoc mundo, sed per
in hoc mundo.
pugnando superare, sed moriendo mirabi- ipsum regnatur Ipse est
liter subjugare; neque ideo natus est ut etiam sapientia Dei, quse dicit in Prover-
tibi succedat, sed ut in eum mundus fide- biis, Per me reges regnant. Puer iste
liter credat. Venit enim, non ut regnet Verbum Dei est ; Puer iste virtus et sa-

vivus, sed ut triumphet occisus ; nee sibi


pientia Dei est. Si potes, contra Dei
de gentibus auro exercitum quaerat,
aliis
sapientiam cogita ; intuam perniciem ver-
sed ut pro salvandis gentibus pretiosum saris, et nescis. Tu enim regnum nulla-
sanguinem fundat. Inaniter invidendo tenus habuisses, nisi ab isto puero qui
timuisti successorem, quern credendo de- nunc natus est accepisses. Claud, lib. i

buisti quaerere salvatorem ; quia si in eum in Matth.


rrcdcrcs, cum eo regnares, et sicut ab illo
632 RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH. [CHAP.

saith in the Proverbs, By me kings reign. This Child is


the Word of God; this Child is the power and wisdom
of God if thou canst, think against the wisdom of God ;
:

thou workest thine own destruction, and dost not know it.
For thou by no means shouldst have had thy kingdom,
unless thou hadst received it from that Child which now is
born."
As for the censure of the doctors of Salamanca and
Valladolid, our nobility and gentry, by the faithful service
which at that time they performed unto the crown of
England, did make a real confutation of it. Of whose
fidelity in this kind I am so well persuaded, that I do
assure myself that neither the names of Franciscus Zumel
and Alphonsus how great schoolmen soever they
Curiel,
" Fathers of the
nor of the
were, Society," Johannes de
Ziguenza, Emanuel de Roias, and Gaspar de Mena, nor
of the Pope himself, upon whose sentence they wholly

ground their resolution, either then was, or hereafter will


be, of any force to remove them one whit from the alle-
giance and duty which they do owe unto their king and
country. Nay, I am in good hope that their loyal minds
will so far distaste that evil lesson, which those great
rabbis of theirs would have them learn, that it will teach
them to unlearn another bad lesson wherewith they have
47
been most miserably deluded for whereas heretofore : wise
men did learn to give credence to the truth, "
by whoso-
ever^s mouth it should be delivered," now men are made
such that they are " 48
to attend in the doc-
fools, taught
trine of religion, not what the thing is that is said, but
what the person is that speaketh it."
But how dangerous a thing it is to have the faith of
our Lord Jesus Christ in respect of persons, and to give
entertainment to the truth, not so much for itself as for
the regard that is had to the deliverer of it, I wish men

47 Veritas sapient! nitet, cujuscunque veritatis testimonio magis attendendum


ore prolata fuerit. Gildas, in Cod. Cano- esse probatur.
48
In doctrina religionis non quid dica-
num Cottoniano, tit. De veritate credenda,
quocunque ore prolata fuerit. Similiter tur,sed quis loquatur attendendum esse.

Nennius, Praefat. in Historiam Britonum, Thorn. Stapleton. Defens. Ecclesiast.


MSS. in publica Cantabrigiensis Acade- Auctoritat. lib. iii. cap. 7, et Demon-
miae Bibliotheca Non quis dicat, aut
: strat. Principior. Doctrinal, lib. x.

qualiter dicatur, sed quid dictum sit, cap. 5.


XI.] OF THE POPE'S TEMPORAL POWER OVER IRELAND. 633

would learn otherwise than by woeful experience in them-


" 49 The " is to be loved
selves. truth," saith Claudius,
for itself, not for the man or for the angel by whom it is

preached ; for he that doth love it in respect of the preachers


of it, may love lies also, if they peradventure shall deliver
As "
any." here, without all peradventure," the Pope and
his doctors have done, unless the teaching of flat rebellion
and high treason may pass in the account of Catholic
verities. The Lord of his mercy open their eyes, that they
may see the light, and give them grace to receive the love

of the truth, that they may be saved! The Lord likewise


grant, if it be his blessed will, that truth and peace may
meet together in our days, that we may be all gathered
into one fold under one Shepherd, and that 5l the whole
earth may be filled with his glory ! Amen, Amen.

49
Veritas propter seipsam diligenda est, et mendacia diligere, siqua forte ipsa sua
non propter hominem, aut propter ange- protulerint. Claud, in Galat. i.
50
lum, per quern adnunciatur. Qui enim John x. 16.
51
propter adnunciatores earn diligit, potest Psalm Lxxii. 19.
TO THE READER.

IN judging of the religion of our ancestors, we are


not to build our conclusion upon every single proposition
wherein they either agree with or dissent from us, but upon
the main bulk of the substantial points of doctrine which

are controverted betwixt us at this day. Therefore the

adversary must not imagine that I intend here to make


such simple collections as these: Such a man held such a

point with us; therefore he was a Protestant no more


than I will allow him to frame the like: Such a man was
a monk, such or such a particular agreed with the
or in
now Church of Rome; therefore he was a Papist. And
forasmuch as for any one man we have not sufficient evi-
dences left unto us whereby it may appear what he held
in every particular, the only way that now remaineth is to

join all of them together, with this presumption, that what


one man of note hath delivered, the contrary whereof is

not to be found in others of his countrymen who lived


about the same time, that is to be
supposed to have been
the doctrine which was commonly received in those coun-
tries at that time.

Hence it is that I oftentimes chain together the saying

of divers authors into one context, and insert also some-


times certain sentences of theirs, which do not so much make
forany controversy as for the apt connexion of the points,
and the illustration of the present head of doctrine there
treated of. And although my principal intention in this
Discourse was to produce such evidences as might shew the
TO THE READER. 635

agreement that was betwixt our ancestors and us in matter


of religion, and to leave the instances which might be

alleged for the contrary to them unto


whom the maintain-
ing of that part didproperly belong; yet I have, upon
occasion, touched upon that part also, and brought to light
some things which I met withal in such hidden antiquities,
as in all likelihood would not have come unto their notice

without my discovery.
The printed books which I cite lie as open to them
as they have done to me; neither need they our help for

the collecting of such things out of them as may seem to


make for their purpose: I would we were half as careful

for the maintenance of the truth that way, as they every

day shew themselves to be in not letting slip any manner


of advantage which may countenance their superstitions and
errors. As for the manuscripts which I use, they are
partly known to some of them, partly notified in the mar-

ginal quotations of the treatise itself, where the place is

noted in which they may be found:


a great part whereof

being gathered together in the rare treasury of that worthy


Baronet, Sir Robert Cotton, I thought it not amiss to
mark all such with an asterisk (*) in the following Cata-

logue, to the end that, if any of the other side will be


pleased to look
into these things, he may with more ease

satisfy himself by perusing the chief of these monuments


brought thus together place, into one
as well and so

examine the truth of my allegations, as take up what he


shall think meet for the patronage of his own cause; my

intention herein being to deal fairly, and not to desire

the concealing of any thing that may tend to the true

discovery of the. state of former times, whether it


may
seem to make for me or against me.
CATALOGUE OF THE AUTHORS
CITED IN THIS DISCOURSE,

ACCORDING TO THE TIMES WHEREIN THEY FLOURISHED.

AN. DOM.

300. EUMENIUS Rhetor. 610. Lauren tius, Mellitus, et

317. Constantinus Magnus, cui Justus, quorum Epistoloe ad


ineptissima afficta est Dona- Hibernos pars habetur apud
tio. Bedam.
330. Eusebius. 620. Taliessinus Bardus.
380. Amphilochius. 630. Gallus.
400. Jo. Chrysostomus. 634.Honorius I cuj us Epistolse
.

410. Hieronymus. ad Hibernos pars habetur


414. Pelagius et Celestius hsere- apud Bedam.
tici. 639.ClerusRomanusjCujusEpi-
420. Augustinus. stolaead Hibernos fragmen-
433. Prosper Aquitanicus. tum habetur apud Bedam.
440. *Patricius. 640. Jonas.
448. Secundinus. 650. *Cummianus.
450. Synodus Patricii, Auxilii 657. Auctor libri deMirabilibus
et Issernini. S. Scripture.

490. Sedulius. 660. Hildephonsus Toletanus.


494. Concilium Roman um sub 664. Streneshalchana Synodus,
Gelasio. cui interfuerunt Colmanus et

530. Damascius.
540. Gildas. 680. Theodoras Campidonensis,
* vel quicunque auctor fuit Vitae
Cogitosus.
580. Venantius Fortunatus. Magni sive Magnoaldi.
592. I.
* Auctor Vitae Fursei.
Gregorius
600. Columbanus. 690. Adamnanus.
CATALOGUE OF AUTHORS CITED IN THIS DISCOURSE. 637

AN. DOM. AN. DOM.

690. Aldhelmus. 1100. Gille sive Gillebertus


700. *Collectio Canonum Ec- Lumnicensis Episc.
clesiae Anglo- Sax onicae. 1110. *Gotcelinus Bertinianus.

720. *Stephanus Presbyter. 1123. Eadmerus.

730. *Auctor fragmenti de 1125. Hildebertus Cenomanen-


Ecclesiasticorum Officiorum sis.

origine.
1130. Liber Landavensis Eccle-
731. Beda. siae, vocatus Tilo.
745. Bonifacius Moguntinus. 1140. Gulielmus Malmesburi-
Concilium Romanum II. ensis.

sub Zacharia P. 1150. Bernardus Claraevallen-


760. sis.
*Egbertus.
795. Alcuinus. 1153. Henricus Saltereyensis.
800. Egilwardus, vel quicun- 1155. Adrianus IV.
que auctor fuit Vitae Ki- 1156. Caradocus Lancarvanen-
liani. sis.

815. Claudius Scotus. 1158. Johannes Sarisburiensis.


840. Walafridus Strabus. 1175. Alexander III.
850. auctor Vitas 1180. Jocelinus Furnesii mona-
Anonymus
Chrysostomi. chus.
Johannes Erigena. 1185. *Giraldus Cambrensis.
858. *Nennius. 1204. Roger us Hovedenus.
860. Photius. 1210. Robertus de Monte.
885. JElfredus Rex. Innocentius III.
890. Leo Imperator. 1216. Tuamensis Archiepisc. et

893. Asser Menevensis. Suffraganeorum rescriptum


914. *HowelusDha. ad eundem.
*
950. Fridegodus Probus Bri- 1222. Caesarius Heisterbachen-
to. sis monachus.
1010. Calvus Perennis. 1226. Gualterus Coventriensis.
1022. *Burgenses Dublin. 1235. *Rogerus de Wendover.
*Henricus I. Rex An- 1240. *Annalium Dubliniensi-
gliae.
um fragmentum.
1074. *Lanfrancus. 1250. Matthaeus Parisiensis.
1080. *Gregorius VII. 1281. * Johannes Brampton.
1082. *Marianus Scotus. 1292. *Bartholomaeus de Cot-
1085. * ton.
Johannes, Sulgeni films.
filius * Annales Melrosensis Cce-
1090. Ricemarchus, ejus-
dem. nobii.
1095. Anselmus. 1307. Nicolaus Trivetus.
638 CATALOGUE OF AUTHORS CITED IN THIS DISCOURSE.

AN. DOM.

1347. Pembrigius, auctor prio- 1417. Oratores Angli in Con-


ris partis Annalium Hiber- stantiensi Concilio.
niae a D. Camdeno edito- 1427.
* Thomas Casaeus.
rum. 1438. Marcus Ephesius.
1357- Ricardus Armachanus. 1460. Johannes Capgravius.
1366. * Johannes de Tinmouth, 1461. Johannes Hardingus.

Anglicus vulgo dictus. 1480. Johannes Rossus.


1384. Gulielmus Andreae, Mi- 1490. Pomponius Laetus.
densis episcopus. 1494. Baptista Mantuanus.
1392. Concilium Stanfordiae sub 1500. Jo. Cuspinianus.
Gulielmo Cantuariensi. 1533. Polydorus Virgilius.
THAT which concerneth the Pope's Supremacy, and the
union of other churches with the Church of Rome, I have
here handled at large, because upon that only point the
Romanists do hazard their whole cause, Acknowledging the

standing or falling of their church absolutely to depend there-


upon. I have somewhat also insisted upon the supreme

power which the kings of England have in the temporal


state of this realm, and discovered the vanity of the Pope's

claim unto it : the exercise of the prince's power in causes

ecclesiastical touched but incidently, that being a


I have

question which requireth explication rather than demonstra-


tion. Wherein having been called by authority, the very
same time wherein I was making up this treatise, to give

satisfaction in a public place of justice unto such as pre-


tended some scruple of conscience that way, I thought
good to annex that declaration as a kind of supplement to
this present discourse, together with his Majesty's royal
approbation of it. Which I have done, not for any vain
ostentation, although I have
good cause to rejoice in the tes-
timony and perpetual memory of my dear Master; but to
stop the mouth of who may perhaps object that
cavillers,

the king challengeth another manner of authority than that


which I ascribe unto him. Which no man will say, who knew

1
Etenim de qua re agitur, cum de quaeritur, debeatne ecclesia diutius consis-
primatu pontificis agitur ? brevissime di- tere, an vero dissolvi et considere. Bel-
cam, de summa rei Christiana. Id enim larm. Praefat. in libros de Rom. Pontif.
640 TO THE READER.

King JAMES have been, as the most learned and judicious


to

prince that ever sate upon this throne, so the most jealous
of his prerogative royal, and the most impatient of the
least diminution of the rights and pre-eminences united unto
his imperial crown. Whereby you may discern, that
easily
such as charge the taking that part of the oath of supremacy
which concerneth the king's authority in causes ecclesiastical,
with " loathsome and base abominable and blas-
flattery,

phemous adulation, shameful heresy and untruth against


nature," (these be the flowers of Cardinal Allen's rhetoric,)

bewray themselves to be somewhat near of kin unto those


false teachers that speak great swelling words of vanity;
2 3
whose characters St Peter and St Jude have long since

deciphered, that only out of their presumption and


not
self-conceitedness they are not afraid to speak evil of dig-

nities, but also after a brutish manner take the boldness

to speak evil of those things which they understand not.


From whose seductions I beseech God deliver all his Ma-
jesty's true-hearted subjects !

2 3
2 Pet. ii. 10, 12, 18. Jude 8, 10.
SPEECH
DELIVERED IN

THE CASTLE-CHAMBER AT DUBLIN

THE 22 ND NOVEMBER, ANNO 1622,

AT THE CENSURING OF CERTAIN OFFICERS WHO REFUSED


TO TAKE THE

OATH OF SUPREMACY.

s s
SPEECH
DELIVERED IN THE CASTLE-CHAMBER
CONCERNING THE

OATH OF SUPREMACY.

WHAT the danger of the law is for refusing this oath,


hath been sufficiently opened by my Lords the Judges ; and
the quality and quantity of that offence hath been aggra-
vated to the full by those that have spoken after them.
The part which most proper for me to deal in is, the
is

information of the conscience touching the truth and equity


of the matters contained in the oath; which I also have
made choice the rather to insist upon, because both the
form of the oath itself requireth herein a full resolution
of the conscience, as appeareth by those words in the very
" I do
beginning thereof, utterly testify and declare in my
conscience," &c. and the persons that stand here to be
censured for refusing the same have alleged nothing in their
own defence but only the simple plea of ignorance.
That this therefore, may be cleared, and all
point,
needless scruples removed out of men's minds, two main
branches there be of this oath which require special con-
sideration : the one positive, acknowledging the supremacy
of the government of these realms in all causes whatsoever

to rest in the king's highness only ; the other negative,

jurisdictions and
all authorities of any foreign
renouncing
prince or prelate within his Majesty's dominions.
644 SPEECH IN THE CASTLE-CHAMBER

For the better understanding of the former we are in


the place to call unto our remembrance that exhorta-
first

tion of St Peter, Submit yourselves unto every ordinance


l

of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be unto the king,


as having the pre-eminence; or unto governors, as unto
them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil-

doers, and for the praise of them that do well. By this


we are taught to the
respect not as " the
king, only governor"
of his dominions simply, (for we see there be other
governors
placed under him,) but w? vTrepe-^ovra, as him that excelleth
and hath the pre-eminence over the rest, that is to say,
according to the tenor of the oath, as him that is " the

only supreme governor'" of his realms. Upon which ground


we may safely build this conclusion, that whatsoever power
is incident unto the king by virtue of his place, must be
acknowledged to be in him supreme, there being nothing
so contrary to the nature of sovereignty as to have another

superior power to over-rule it.

Qui rex est, regem, maxime, non habeat.

In the second place, we are to consider that God, for


the better settling of piety and honesty among men, and
the repressing of profaneness and other vices, hath established
two distinct powers upon earth; the one of the keys, com-
mitted to the church, the other of the sword, committed
to the civil magistrate. That of the keys is ordained to
work upon the inner man, having immediate relation to the
2
remitting or retaining of sins. That of the sword is ap-
pointed to work upon the outward man, yielding protection
to the obedient, and inflicting external punishment upon the
rebellious and disobedient. By the former, the spiritual
officers of the Church of Christ are enabled to ^govern
to 4 speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority,
5
to 'loose such as are penitent, to commit others unto the
Lord's prison until their amendment, or to bind them over
unto the judgment of the great day, if they shall persist
in wilfulness and obstinacy.
their By other, princes the
have an imperious power assigned by God unto them for
the defence of such as do well, and executing 6 revenge and

1 2 5
1 Pet. ii.
13, 14. John xx. 23. Matt. xvi. 19, and xviii. 18.
3 1 4 6
Tim. v. 17. Tit. ii. 15. Rom. xiii. 4.
CONCERNING THE OATH OF SUPREMACY. 645

wrath upon such as do evil, whether by death, or banish- 7

ment 9 or confiscation of goods , or imprisonment, according


to the
quality of the offence.
When St Peter, that had the keys committed unto him,
made bold to draw the sword, he was commanded to 8 put
it
up, as a weapon that he had no authority to meddle
withal. And on the other side, when Uzziah the king
would venture upon the execution of the priest's office, it
was said unto him, It pertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah,
<J

to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priests the sons

of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense. Let this,


therefore, be our second conclusion, that the power of the
sword and of the keys are two distinct ordinances of God ;
and that the prince hath no more authority to enter upon
the execution of any part of the priest's function, than the

priest hath to intrude upon any part of the office of the


prince.
In the third place, we are to observe, that the power
of the civil sword, the
supreme managing whereof belongeth
to the
king alone, is not to be restrained unto temporal
causes only, but is by God's ordinance to be extended like-
wise unto " all spiritual or ecclesiastical things and causes ;"
that as the spiritual rulers of the Church do exercise their
kind of government in bringing men unto obedience, not
of the duties of the first table alone, which concerneth
piety
and the religious service which man is bound to perform
unto his Creator, but also of the second, which respecteth
moral honesty and the offices that man doth owe unto man ;
so the civil magistrate is to use his
authority also in re-
dressing the abuses committed against the first table, as
well as
against the second, that is to say, as well in
punishing of an heretic, or an idolater, or a blasphemer,
as of a thief, or a murderer, or a traitor; and in
pro-
viding by all good means that such as live under his
lo
government may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all
piety and honesty.
And howsoever by this means we make both prince and
priest to be in their several places custodes utriusque tabulce,
"
keepers of both God's tables," yet do we not hereby any

7
Ezra vii. 26. 8
Matt. xxvi. 52. 9
2 Chron. xxvi. 18.
10
1 Tim. ii. 2.
046 SPEECH IN THE CASTLE-CHAMBER

way confound both of their offices together; for though the


matter wherein their government is exercised
may be the
same, yet is the form and manner of governing therein

always different, the one reaching to the outward man only,


the other to the inward ; the one binding or loosing the
soul, other laying hold on the body and the things
the

belonging thereunto; the one having special reference to the

judgment of the world to come, the other respecting the

present retaining or losing of some of the comforts of this


life.

That there is such a " n civil government" as this in


" causes 1'
no man of judgment
spiritual or ecclesiastical,
can deny. For must not heresy, for example, be acknow-
ledged to be a cause merely spiritual or ecclesiastical? and
yet by what power is an heretic put to death ? The officers
of the church have no authority to take away the life of

any man it must be done therefore per brachium seculare ;


:

and consequently it must be yielded without contradiction,


that the temporal magistrate doth exercise therein a part
of his civil government in punishing a crime that is of its
own nature spiritual or ecclesiastical.
But here it will be said, the words of the oath being
the king " the
general, that is
only supreme governor of
this realm and of all other his highness' dominions and
countries," how may
it appear that the power of the civil

sword only meant is by that government, and that the


of the is not comprehended therein ? I answer,
power keys
that where a civil magistrate is affirmed to be
" the
first,
governor of his own dominions and countries," by common
intendment this must needs be understood of a civil govern-
ment, and may in no reason be extended to that which is
merely of another kind. Secondly, I say, that where an
ambiguity is conceived to be in any part of an oath, it
ought to be taken according to the understanding of him
for whose satisfaction the oath was ministered. Now, in

11
As on the other side, that a spiritual we see in Sententia lata super Chartas.
or ecclesiastical government is exercised anno 12 R. H. HI. that the bishops of
in causes civil or temporal. For js not England pronounce a solemn sentence of
excommunication a main part of eccle- excommunication against the infringers
siastical government, and forest laws a of the liberties contained in Charta dc
special branch of causes temporal ? yet Fores fa.
CONCERNING THE OATH OF SUPREMACY. 647

this case it hath been sufficiently declared by public autho-


rity, that
no other thing is meant by the government here
mentioned but that of the civil sword only.
For in the book of Articles agreed upon by the arch-
bishops and bishops and the whole clergy, in the Convocation
holden at London anno 1562, thus we read: "Where we
attribute to the queen's majesty the chief government, by
which we understand the minds of some slanderous
titles

folks to be offended, we give not to our princes the minis-

tering either of God's word or of the Sacraments, (the


which thing the injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth
our Queen doth most plainly testify), but that only pre-
rogative which we see to have been given always to all
godly princes in holy Scriptures by God himself, that is,
that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to
their
charge by God, whether they be ecclesiastical or
temporal, and restrain with the civil sword the stubborn and
evil-doers."
If it be here objected, that the authority of the Con-
vocation isnot a sufficient ground for the exposition of that
which was enacted
in Parliament, I answer, that these
Articles stand confirmed not only by the royal assent of
the prince, for the establishing of whose supremacy the oath
was framed, but also by a special act of Parliament, which
is to be found among the statutes in the thirteenth year
of Queen Elizabeth, chap. 12. Seeing therefore the makers
of the law have full authority to expound the law, and they
have sufficiently manifested, that by the " supreme govern-
ment" given to the prince they understand that kind of
government only which is exercised with the civil sword,
I conclude that nothing can be more plain than this, that
without all
scruple of conscience the king's majesty may
be acknowledged in this sense to be " the only supreme
governor of all his highness' dominions and countries, as
well in all
spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes as
temporal." And so have I cleared the first main branch
of the oath.
I come now unto the second, which is
propounded
negatively, that " no
foreign prince, person, prelate, state,
or potentate, hath or
ought to have any jurisdiction, power,
superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spi-
648 SPEECH IN THE CASTLE-CHAMBER

ritual, within this realm." The foreigner that challengeth


this ecclesiastical or spiritual jurisdiction over us is the
Bishop of Rome, and the title whereby he claimeth this power
over us is the same
whereby he claimeth it over the whole
world, because he is St Peter's successor, forsooth. And
indeed if St Peter himself had been now alive, I should
freely confess that he ought to have spiritual authority and
superiority within this kingdom. But so would I say also
if St Andrew, St Bartholomew, St Thomas, or
any of the
other Apostles had been alive. For I know that their com-
mission was very large, to }2 go into all the world, and to
preach the gospel unto every creature; so that in what
part of the world soever they lived, they could not be said
to be out of their charge, their apostleship being a kind
of an universal bishoprick. If, therefore, the Bishop of Rome
can prove himself to be one of this rank, the oath must
be amended, and we must acknowledge that he hath eccle-
siastical
authority within this realm.
True it is, that our lawyers in their year-books by the
name of the Apostle do usually design the Pope. But if
they had examined his title to that apostleship, as they
would try an ordinary man's title to a piece of land, they
might easily have found a number of flaws and main defects
therein. For, first, it would be enquired whether the apostle-
ship was not ordained by our Saviour Christ as a special
commission, which, being personal only, was to determine
with the death of the first Apostles. For howsoever at their
first into the execution of this commission we find
entry
that 13 Matthias was admitted to the apostleship in the room
of Judas, yet afterwards, when James the brother of John
was slain by Herod, we do not read that any other was
substituted in his place. Nay, we know that the Apostles
left no successors in this kind, neither did any
generally
of the bishops (he of Rome only excepted) that sat in those
famous churches wherein the Apostles exercised their minis-
try, challenge an apostleship or an universal bishoprick by
virtue of that succession.
It would, secondly, therefore be enquired, what sound
evidence they can produce to shew that one of the company

" Mark xvi. 15.


13
Acts i.
25, 20.
CONCERNING THE OATH OF SUPREMACY. 649

was to hold the apostleship as it were in fee for him and


his successors for ever, and that the other eleven should
hold the same for term of life only ? Thirdly, if this state
of perpetuity was to be cast upon one, how came it to fall
upon St Peter rather than upon St John, who outlived all
the rest of his fellows, and so, as a surviving feoffee, had
the fairest right to retain the same in himself and his suc-
cessors for ever?
Fourthly, if that state were wholly settled
upon St Peter, seeing the Romanists themselves acknowledge
that he was Bishop of Antioch before he was Bishop of
Rome, we require them to shew why so great an inheritance
as this should descend unto the younger brother, as it were

by Borough-English, rather than to the elder, according to


the ordinary manner of descents; especially seeing Rome
hath little else to allege for this preferment, but only that
St Peter was crucified in it, which was a very slender
reason to move the Apostle so to respect Seeing there-
it.

fore the grounds of this great claim of the Bishop of Rome

appear to be so vain and frivolous, I may safely conclude


that he " ought to have no ecclesiastical or spiritual autho-

rity within this realm," which is the principal point contained


in the second part of the oath.
650

JAMES REX.

RIGHT Reverend Father in God and right trusty and


well-beloved counsellor, we
greet you well. You have not
deceived our expectation, nor the gracious opinion we ever
conceived both of your abilities in learning, and of your
faithfulness to us and our service. Whereof as we have
received sundry testimonies both from our precedent Deputies,
as likewise from our right trusty and well-beloved cousin
and counsellor the Viscount Falkland, our present Deputy
of that realm, so have we now of late in one particular
had a further evidence of your duty and affection well ex-

pressed by your late carriage in our Castle-chamber there,


at the censure of those disobedient magistrates who refused

to take the oath of supremacy ; wherein your zeal to the


maintenance of our just and lawful power, defended with
so much learning and reason, deserves our princely and

gracious thanks, which we do by this our letter unto you,


and so bid you farewell. Given under our signet at our
court at Whitehall the llth of January, 1622, in the 20th

year of our reign of Great Britain, France, and Ireland.

To the Right Reverend Father in God


and our right trusty and well-beloved
counsellor the Bishop of Meath.
SERMON
PREACHED BEFORE THE

COMMONS' HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT

IN

Sx MARGARET'S CHURCH AT WESTMINSTER,

THE 18 OF FEBRUARY, 1620.


A SERMON,

1 CORINTHIANS x. 17-

We being many are one bread, and one body: for we


are all partakers of that one bread.

OTHER entrance I need not make unto


my speech at
this time, than that which the Apostle himself presenteth
unto me in the verse next but one going before my text :

/ speak to wise men. The more unwise might I deem


myself to be, who, being so conscious unto myself of my
great weakness, durst adventure to discover the same before
so grave and judicious an auditory but that this consi-
;

deration dothsomewhat support me, that no great blame


can light herein upon me, but some aspersion thereof must
reflect upon yourselves, who happened to make so evil a
choice : the more facile I expect you to be in a cause
wherein you yourselves are some ways interested.
The special cause of your assembling at this time is,
first, that you who profess the same truth may join in one

body, and partake together of the same blessed Communion,


and then that such as adhere unto false worship may be
discovered and avoided you in your wisdom discerning
;

this
holy Sacrament to be as it were ignis probationis,
which would both congregare homogenea, and segregare
heterogenea, (as in philosophy we use to speak,) both con-
join those that be of the same, and disjoin such as be of
a differing kind and disposition. And to this purpose have
I made choice of this present text; wherein the Apostle
maketli our partaking of the Lord's table to be a testimony,
654 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE

not only of the union and communion which we have betwixt


ourselves and with our head, which he doth in the express
words which I have read, but also of our disunion and
separation from all idolatrous worship, as appeareth by
the application hereof unto his main drift and intendment,
laid down in the 14th and 21st verses.
The effect of that which St Paul in express
therefore
terms here delivereth, is the " communion of saints ;" which
consisteth of two parts, the fellowship which they have with
the body laid down in the beginning, and the fellowship
which they have with the head laid down in the end of the
verse; both which are thus explained by St John That :

which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that


ye also may have fellowship with us : and truly our fellow-
ship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1 John i. 3. Let them therefore that walk in darkness
brag as much as they list of their good fellowship; this
blessed Apostle assureth us, that such only as do walk in
the light * have fellowship one with another, even as they
have fellowship with God and Jesus Christ his Son, whose
blood shall cleanse them from all sin. And to what better
company can a man come than
2
to the general assembly and
church of the firstborn, which are enrolled in heaven, and
to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men
made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new cove-
nant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better
things than that of Abel ? No fellowship, doubtless, is com-
" communion of saints.
11

parable to this
To begin therefore with the first part thereof as the Apo- :

stle in the third to the Galatians maketh our being 3 bapti%ed


into Christ to be a testimony that we are all one in Christ,
so doth he here make our partaking of that one bread to
be an evidence that we also are all one bread and one body
in him. And to the same purpose in the twelfth chapter
following, he propounded! both our baptism and our drinking
of the Lord's cup as seals of the spiritual conjunction of
us all into one mystical body: *For as the body is one,
saith he, and hath many members, and all the members of
that one body, being many, are one body ; so also is Christ.

* - 3 4
John i. 6, 7. Heb. xii. 23, 24. Gal. Hi. 27, 28. 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13.
COMMONS HOUSK OF PARLIAMKXT. C55

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether
we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free ; and
have been all made to drink into one Spirit. Afterwards
he addeth, that we b are the body of Christ, and members in
particular ; and in another place also, that We being many
6

are one body in Christ, and every one members one of


another.
Now, the use which he teacheth us to make of this won-
derful conjunction, whereby we are made members of Christ
and members one of another, is twofold 1. That there :

should be no schism in the body. 2. That the members

should have the same care one for another, 1 Cor. xii. 25.
For preventing of schism he exhorteth us, in the fourth to
7
the Ephesians, o keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond

of peace and to make this bond the firmer, he putteth us


;

in mind of one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one

faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is


above all, and through all, and in us all; by this multi-
plication of unities declaring unto us, that the knots whereby
we are tied together are both in number more, and of far
greater moment, than that matters of smaller consequence
should dissever us; and therefore that we should stand fast
in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith
of the Gospel ; and in nothing terrified by our adversaries.
Phil. i. 27, 28.
But howsoever God hath thus marshalled his Church in
a goodly order, terrible as an army with banners, yet such
fi

is the disorder of our nature, that many for all this break
rank, and the enemy laboureth to breed division in God^s
house, that so his kingdom might not stand. Nay, often-
9
times it cometh to pass that the watchmen themselves,
who were appointed for the safeguarding of the Church,
10
prove in this kind to be the smiters and wounders of her;
and from among them who were purposely ordained in the
Church for the bringing of men u into the unity of the faith,
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, 12 even from among

5
1 Cor. xii. 27. e
Rom. xii. 5. domo Dei populos seduxisse, prseter illos
'
Ephes. iv. 36. 8
Cant. vi. 4. qui sacerdotes a Deo positi fuerant et
9
Cant.v. 7. prophetae. Hieron.
10 11
Veteres scripturas scrutans, invenire Ephes. iv. 13.
non possum, scidisse ecclesiam et de 12
Acts xx. 30.
656 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE

those some do arise that speak perverse things, to draw away


disciples after them.
Thus we find in the Ecclesiastical History, that after
the death of Julian the Apostate " 13 questions and disputes

concerning matters of doctrine were freshly set a-foot by


those who were set over the churches." Whereupon Sozo-
men maketh this grave observation that " u the disposition :

of men is such, that when they are wronged by others

they are at agreement among themselves, but when they


are freed of evils from abroad, then they make insurrections
one against another:" which as we find to be too true by
the late experience of our neighbour churches in the Low
Countries, so are we to consider with the wise man, that
15
what hath been is now, and that which is to be hath
already been and be not so inquisitive, why 16 the former
;

days were better than these ? for we do not enquire wisely


concerning this. When like troubles were in the Church
heretofore, Isidorus Pelusiota, an ancient Father, moveth
the question, " What a man should do" in this case? and
17

maketh answer, that " if it be possible, we should mend


it; but if that may not be, we should hold our peace."
The Apostle's resolution, I think, may give sufficient
satisfaction point in this to all that have moderate and
is
peaceable minds: lf in any thing ye be otherwise minded,
God shall reveal even this unto you: nevertheless, whereto
we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule,
let us mind the same thing. It is not to be looked for,
that all good men should agree in all things neither is it ;

fit that we should, as our adversaries do, the truth unto


put
compromise, and to the saying of an Achitophel, whose
counsel must be accepted, as if a man had enquired at
the oracle of God. We
all agree that the Scriptures of

God are the perfect rule of our faith we all consent in ;

the main grounds of religion drawn from thence; we all

subscribe to the articles of doctrine agreed upon in the

13
At irepl Taiv (io'yfJLa.rwv rjTrj<reis T6 auToZs TiJav e^coQev KCLKUJV TT/JOS <r<as av-
Kai dia\eeis ird\iv dveKivovvro TOIS TOIIS a-Taa-ia^e iv. Ibid.

s-/ooe<rruJ<ri rwv e/c/c\tj<riajj/. Sozomen. 15


Eccles. iii. 15. 16
Eccles. vii. 10.

Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. vi. cap. 4. 17 Ti ovviroit]Teov El Svva-


; <rfs. fiev
14
OUTO) TT1J TOTS dl/0/Oa7TOlS <pl\OV, TOV, SiopSwTeov, et $e /U.TJ, rfcrv\actTeov.
Isidor. Pelus. lib. iv. Epist. cxxxin.
J

irap eTepwv fiev dSmov/Jievois irpos TO


18
de Phil. iii. 15, 16.
COMMONS HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT. 057

" for the


Synod of the year 156'2, avoiding of diversities
of opinions, and the establishing of consent touching true
religion." Hitherto, by God's mercy, have we already at-
tained thus far therefore let us mind the same thing let
; ;

not every wanton wit be permitted to bring what fancies


he list into the pulpit, and to disturb things that have been
19
well ordered. / beseech you, brethren, saith the Apostle,
mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to
the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them.
If in some other things we be otherwise minded than
others of our brethren are, let us bear one with another,
until God
shall reveal the same thing unto us ; and how-
soever we may see cause why we should dissent from others
in matter of opinion, yet let us remember, that that is no
cause why we should break the king's peace, and make a
rent in the Church of God a thing deeply to be thought :

of by the Ishmaels of our time, whose 20 hand is against


every man, and every man's hand against them who 21 bite ;

and devour one another until they be consumed one of


another ; who forsake the fellowship of the saints, and 22 by
a sacrilegious separation break this bond of peace. Little
do these men consider, how precious the peace of the Church
ought to be in our eyes, to be redeemed with a thousand of
our lives, and of what dangerous consequence the matter of
schism is unto their own souls for howsoever the schismatic :

secundum affectum, as the schoolmen speak, in his intention


and wicked purpose, taketh away unity from the Church,
even as he that hateth God doth take away goodness from
him as much as in him lieth yet secundum effectum, in ;

truth and in very deed, he taketh away the unity of the


Church only from himself; that is, he cutteth himself off
from being united with the rest of the body ; and being
dissevered from the body, how is it possible that he should
retain communion with the head ?
To conclude therefore this first use which we are to

19
Rom. xvi. 17. 20
Gen. xvi. 12. aipeaiv fj.Tre<rclv TO rtfv KK\i]<riav
81
Gal. v. 15. OUK eXctTTov ecrri KUKOV. " I say
a"xi(ra.L
22
Vos ergo quare separatione sacri- and protest, that to make schism in the
lega pacis vinculum dirupistis ? Au- Church is no less evil than to fall
gust, lib. ii. de Baptismo contra .Donat. into heresy." Chrysost. in Ephes. Horn.
Aeyco KUI otaucc/oTV|00|uai, OTI TOV el<s

T T
658 A SERMON PLEACHED BEFORE THE

make of our communion with the body, let us call to mind


23
the exhortation of the Apostle : Above all things put on
love, which is the bond of perfectness : and let the peace of

God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in


2*
one body. Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity ! what a goodly thing
it is to behold such an honourable
assembly as this is, to
be as a house that is ^compact together in itself, holding
fit
correspondence with the other part of this great body,
and due subordination unto their and our Head Such as !

wish not well to the public good, would rejoice at


and
the ruin of our state, long for nothing more than that
dissensions should arise here betwixt the members mutually,
and betwixt them and their Head.
Hoc Ithacus velit, et magno raercentur Atridae.

They know
26
full well that every kingdom divided against
itself is brought to desolation ; and every house divided
against shall not stand , nor do they forget the
itself
old rule, divide et impera,
" make a
politician's division,
1
and get the dominion.' The more need have we to look
herein unto ourselves, who cannot be ignorant how dolorous
solutio continui, and how dangerous ruptures prove to be
27
unto our bodies. If therefore there be any comfort of
love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, fulfil our joy; that

ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord,


of one mind ; and doing nothing through strife or vain-
glory. Remember, that as oft as we come unto the Lord's
table, so oft do we enter into new bonds of peace, and tie
ourselves with firmer knots of love together ; this blessed
communion being a sacred seal not only of the union which
we have with our Head by faith, but also of our conjunction
with the other members of the body by love.
Whereby as we are admonished to maintain unity among
ourselves, that there be no schism, or division, in the body,
so are we also further put in mind, that the members should
have the same care one for another : for that is the second
use which St Paul teacheth us to make hereof in 1 Cor. xii.
26, which he further amplifieth in the verse next following,

23 25 Psalm
Col. iii. 14, 15. cxxii. 3.
24
Psalm cxxxiii. 1.
28
Matth. xii. 25. 27 Phil. ii. 13.
COMMONS' HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT. 659

by the mutual sympathy and fellow-feeling which the mem-


bers of the same body have one with another: for whether
one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one
member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. And
then he addeth, Now ye are the body of Christ, and mem-
bers in particular; shewing unto us thereby, that as we
are all 28 a-vcrcrco/mot Kal eirayyeXias, con-
Grv/m/meTo-^oi rrjs
corporated, as were, and made copartners of the promise
it ,.

in Christ ; so we should have one another in our hearts,


29
ei9 TO GwcLTToQaveiv Kal to die and live together.
(Tvtyv,
And hereupon is that exhortation in the 13th to the Hebrews
^ Remember them that are in
grounded :
bonds, as bound
with them ; and them which suffer adversity, as being your-
selves also in the body; it being a perilous sign that we
be no lively members of that body, if we be not sensible
of the calamities that lie
upon our afflicted brethren. We
know the woe that is
pronounced against such as are at
Zl
ease in Sion, and are not grieved for the ajffliction of
Joseph, with the judgment following Therefore : now shall

they go captive with the first that go captive. We know


the angel's bitter curse against the inhabitants of Meroz:
32
Curse ye Merox, said the angel of the Lord, curse
ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came
not to help the Lord, to help the Lord against the
mighty. Not as if the Lord did stand in need of our help,
or were not able without our
assistance to maintain his
own cause; but hereby he would make trial of our
that
readiness to do him service, and prove the sincerity of our
love. ^If we hold our peace and sit still at this time,
deliverance shall arise to God's Church from another place;
but let us look that the destruction do not light upon us
and ours.
I need not make any application of that which I have

spoken: the face of Christendom, so miserably rent and


torn as it is at this day, cannot but present itself as a rueful

spectacle unto all our eyes, and, if there be any bowels in


us, stir up compassion in our hearts. Neither need I to
be earnest in exciting you to put your helping hands to
the making up of these breaches :
your forwardness herein
M
Ephes. iii. 6.
*9
2 Cor. vii. 3.
31
Amos vi. 1, 6, 7. M Judg. v. 23,
;! " 33
Heh. xiii. 3. Esther iv. 14.

T T 2
660 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE

hath prevented me and instead of petitioning, for which


;

I had prepared myself, hath ministered unto me matter of


thanksgiving. A good work is at all times commendable;
but the doing of it in fit time addeth much to the lustre
thereof, and maketh it yet more goodly. The season of
the year is approaching wherein 34 kings go forth to battle :

the present supply and offer of your subsidy was done in


a time most seasonable ; being so much also the more
accept-
able as it was granted ^not grudgingly, or of necessity, but

freely and with a willing mind. God loveth a cheerful


giver, and he is able to make all grace abound towards
you, that ye always having all sufficiency in all things,
may abound to every good work.
And thus being by your goodness so happily abridged
of that which I intended further to have urged from the
conjunction which we have with the body, I pass now unto
the second part of the Communion of Saints, which con-
sisteth in the union which we all have with one Head. For
Christ our Head is the main foundation of this heavenly
union. Out of him there is nothing but confusion without ;

him we are nothing but disordered heaps of rubbish; but


in him all the building fitly framed together groweth unto
an holy temple in the Lord ; and in him are we builded
together for an habitation of God through the Spirit,
Ephes. ii. 21, 22. Of ourselves we are but lost sheep,
scattered and wandering upon every mountain. From him
it is that there is one fold and one shepherd, John x. 16;

God having purposed in himself to gather together in one


all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and whicK
are on earth; even in him, Ephes. i. 10. This is the effect
of our Saviour's prayer, John xvii. 21, That they all may
be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that

they also may be one in us, &c. / in them, and thou in


me, that they may be made perfect in one. And this is it
which we find so oft repeated by St Paul We, being many,
:

are one body in Christ, Rom. xii. 5 ; Ye are all one in Christ
Jesus, Gal. iii. 28. And in the text we have in hand, We
being many are one bread, and one body. Why ? because
we are all partakers of that one bread ; namely, of that

34 35
2 Sam. xi. i. 2 Cor. ix. 7, 8.
COMMONS HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT. 661

bread whereof he had said in the words immediately going


before,
26
The bread which we break, is it not the commu-
nion of the body of Christ?
Under the name of bread, therefore, here is
comprehended
both panis Domini and panis Dominus ; not only the bread
of the Lord, but also the Lord himself, who is that living
bread which came down from heaven, John vi. 51. For
as St Peter, saying that 37 baptism doth save us, under-
standeth thereby both the outward part of that Sacrament,
(for he expressly calleth it a figure,) and more than that
too, as appeareth by the explication presently adjoined,
not the putting away of the Jilth of the fesh, even the
inward purging of our consciences by virtue of the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ ; so St Paul here, making
the reason of our union to be our partaking all of this one
bread, hath not so much respect unto the external bread in
the Sacrament, though he exclude not that neither, as unto the
true and heavenly bread figured thereby ; whereof the Lord
8
himself pronounceth in the sixth of John, The bread that
I will give is my Jlesh, which
I will give for the life of
the world ; and, to shew that by partaking of this bread
that wonderful union we speak of is effected : He that
eateth my Jlesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me,
and I in him.
to behold how this holy Sacra-
It is a lamentable thing

ment, which was ordained by Christ to be a bond whereby


we should be knit together in unity, is by Satan's malice
and the corruption of man's disposition so strangely perverted
the contrary way, that it is made the principal occasion of that
woful distraction which we see amongst Christians at this day,
and the very fuel of endless and implacable contentions.strifes

And forasmuch proceeded from the


as these mischiefs have
inconsiderate confounding of those things which in their own
nature are as different asmay be, for the clearer distinguish-
ing of matters we are in the first place to consider, that a
Sacrament taken in its full extent comprehendeth two things
in it; that which is outward and visible, which the schools
411
call
properly Sacramentum, in a more strict acception of the

36 3?
1 Cor. x. 16. 1 Pet. iii. 21. x. B. et Gratian. de Consecrat. Dist. u.
38 39
John vi. 32, 51. John vi. 56. cap. 48. Hoc est quod dicimus, ex Au-
40
P. Lombard, lib. iv. Sentent. Dist. gustino.
662 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE

word; and that which is inward and invisible, which they


term rem Sacramenti, the principal thing exhibited in the
Sacrament. Thus in the Lord's Supper, the outward thing
which we see with our eyes is bread and wine, the inward
thing which we apprehend by faith is the body and blood
of Christ: in the outward part of this mystical action,
which reacheth to that which is Sacr amentum only, we
receive this body and blood but sacramentally in the ;

inward, which containeth rem, the thing itself in it, we


receive them really and consequently the presence of these
:

in the one is relative and symbolical, in the other real


and substantial.
To begin, then, with that which is
symbolical and rela-
tive, we may observe out of the Scripture, which saith
41
that Abraham received the sign of circumcision, a seal

of the righteousness of the faith which he had being uncir-


cumcised, that sacraments have a twofold relation to the
things whereof they be sacraments, the one of a sign, the
other of a seal. Signs, we know, are relatively united unto
the things which they do signify ; and in this respect are
so nearly conjoined together, that the name of the one is

usually communicated unto This cup is the


the other.
new testament, or, the new covenant, saith our Saviour in
the institution of the holy Supper, Luke xxii. 20. This is
my covenant, saith God in the institution of circumcision
in the Old Testament, Gen. xvii. 10 ; but how it was his

covenant, he explaineth in the verse immediately following :

Ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall


be a SIGN of the covenant betwixt me and you. So words
being signs of things, no sooner is the sound of the
the
word conveyed to our ears, but the notion of the thing signi-
fied thereby is presented unto our mind; and thereupon, in
the speech of the Scripture, nothing is more ordinary than

by the term of ^word to note a thing. read, in the We


fourth of the first of Samuel, that the Philistines were
afraid and come into the camp, verse 7 ? when
said, God is

the Israelites
brought the ark of the covenant of
thither
the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims,

41
Rom. iv. 11. no word shall be impossible, that is, no
42
So the ten commandments are called thing, Luke i.
37, &c.
ten words, Exod. xxxiv. 28. With God
AllLF AME N
1
COMMONS HOUSE ()1 1' I .
663

verse 4, and yet was that no other but this relative kind
of presence whereof now we speak ; in respect whereof also
the s/iewbread is in the Hebrew named D^2H DftS the
bread of faces, or, the presence-bread. see with us We
the room wherein the king's chair and other ensigns of
are " the chamber of presence,"
state placed is called
although the king himself be not there personally present.
And as the rude and undutiful behaviour of any in that
place, or the offering of any disrespect to the king's por-
traiture, to the arms royal, or to any other thing that
or
hath relation to his majesty, is taken as a dishonour done
unto the king himself; so here, he that eateth the bread
and drinketh the cup of the Lord unworthily, is accounted

guilty of offering indignity to the body and blood of the


Lord.
In this sort we acknowledge sacraments to be signs ;
but bare signs we deny them to be: seals they are as well
as signs of the covenant of grace. As it was therefore said
of John the Baptist, that he was 44 a prophet, and more
than a prophet, so must we say of sacraments, that they be
signs, and more than signs ; even pledges and assurances
of the
interestwhich we have in the heavenly things that are repre-
sented by them. He that hath in his chamber the picture
of the French King hath but a bare sign, which possibly
may make him think of that king when he looketh on it,
but sheweth not that he hath any manner of interest in him.
It is otherwise with him that hath the king's great seal
for the confirmation of the title that he hath unto all the
lands and livelihood which he doth enjoy. And as here
the wax that is letters patents, howsoever
affixed to those
for substance it be the very same with that which is to
be found everywhere, yet being applied to this use, is of
more worth to the patentee than all the wax in the country
beside; so standeth it with the outward elements in the
matter of the Sacrament. The bread and wine are not
changed in substance from being the same with that which
is served at
ordinary tables; but in respect of the sacred
use whereunto they are consecrated, such a change is made
that now they differ as much from common bread and wine

43 44 Matth. xi. 9.
1 Cor. xi. 27.
664 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE

as heaven from earth. Neither are they to be accounted


barely significative, but truly exhibitive also of those hea-
venly things whereto they have relation; as being appointed
by God to be a means of conveying the same unto us,
and putting us in actual possession thereof. So that in
the use of this holy ordinance, as verily as a man with
his bodily hand and mouth receiveth the earthly creatures,
so verily doth he with his spiritual hand and mouth, if any
such he have, receive the body and blood of Christ.
And this is that real and substantial presence which
we affirmed to be in the inward part of this sacred action.
For the better conceiving of which mystery, we are to enquire,
Jirst,
what the thing is which we do here receive; secondly,
how and in what manner we are made partakers of it.
Touching the first, the truth which must be held is this,
that we do not here receive only the benefits that flow from
Christ, but the very body and blood of Christ, that is,
Christ himself crucified. For as none can be made partaker
of the virtue of the bread and wine to his bodily sustenance,
unless he first do receive the substance of those creatures;
so neither can any participate in the benefits arising from
Christ to his spiritual relief, except he first have communion
with Christ himself. We must ^have the Son before we
have life; and therefore eat him we must, as himself

speaketh, that is, as truly be made partakers of him as


we are of our ordinary food, if we will live by him. As
there is a giving of him on God's part, for ^unto us a Son
is given, so there must be a receiving of him on our part;
for ^as many as received him, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God. And as we are ^called by God
unto the communion of Jesus Christ our Lord ; so, if we do
hear his voice, and not harden our hearts by unbelief, we
are indeed made ^partakers of Christ. This is that great

mystery, (for so the Apostle termeth it,) of our union with


51
Christ, whereby we are made members of his body, of his
flesh, and of his bones ; and this is that eating
of the flesh
of the Son of ma,n, and drinking of his blood, which our
Saviour insisteth so much upon in the sixth of John.

49 50
Heb.
45
1 John v. 12.
4(5
John vi. 57- 1 Cor. i. 1). iii. 14,
48 51
47 Isaiah ix. 6. John i. 12. Ephes. v. 30, 32.
COMMONS'" HOUSE OK PAUI.IAMMXT. (505

Where if any man shall demand, (that I may now


come unto the second point of our enquiry,) 52 How can
this man give us his flesh to eat ? he must beware that
he come not preoccupied with such dull conceits as they
were possessed withal who moved that question there ; he
must not think that we cannot truly feed on Christ, unless
we receive him within our jaws for that is as gross an ;

imagination as that of Nicodemus, who could not conceive


how a man could be ^born again unless he should enter
the second time into his mothers womb ; but must consider
that the eating and drinking which our Saviour speaketh
of must be answerable to the hungering and thirsting,
for the quenching whereof this heavenly banquet is pro-
vided. Mark well the words which he useth toward the
M/
beginning of his discourse concerning this argument :

am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never


hunger ; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
But I said unto you, that ye have also seen me and believe
55
not; and compare them with those in the end, It is the

spirit that quickeneth ; the jlesh projiteth nothing : the


words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are
life. But some of you that believe not. Now
there are
observe, that such hungering is, such is our eating.
as our
But every one will confess that the hunger here spoken of
is not corporal, but
spiritual ; why then should any man
dream here of a corporal eating ? Again, the corporal eating,
if a man
might have it, would not avail anything to the
slaking of this hunger; nay, we are expressly told, that
the Jlesh thus taken, for so we must understand it, projiteth

nothing; a man should never be the better, nor one jot the
holier, nor any whit further from the second death, if he
had filled his belly with it. But the manner of feeding
on this flesh which Christ himself commendeth unto us,
is
preserveth the eater from death,
of such profit, ^that it

and maketh him to live for ever. It is not therefore such


an eating that every man who
bringeth a bodily mouth
with him may ; attain unto but
of a far higher nature, it is

namely, a spiritual uniting of us unto Christ, whereby he


dwelleth in us, and we live by him.
r
2 55
'
John vi. 52. 3
John iii. 4. John vi. 63, 64.
|

"'
John vi. 35, 3. John vi. 50, :.l, r, 1. SB.
666 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE

If any one do further enquire, how it is possible that

any such union should be, seeing the body of Christ is in


heaven and we are upon earth ? I answer, that if the man-
ner of this conjunction were carnal and corporal, it would
be indeed necessary that the things conjoined should be
admitted to be in the same place; but it being altogether
spiritual arid supernatural, no local presence, no physical
nor mathematical continuity or contiguity, is any way requi-
site thereunto. It is sufficient for the making of a real
union in this kind, that Christ and
though never so we,
far distant in place each from other, be knit together by
those spiritual ligatures which are intimated unto us in
the words alleged out of the sixth of John ; to wit, the
quickening Spirit descending downward from the head to
be in us a fountain of supernatural life and a lively faith, ;

wrought by the same Spirit, ascending from us upward


to lay fast hold upon him, who, 57 having by himself purged
our sins, on the right hand of the majesty on high.
sitteth
communion of the Spirit, which
First, therefore, for the
is the
ground and foundation of this spiritual union, let us
call to mind what we have read in God^s book that Christ, :

the second Adam, 58 was made a quickening spirit, and that


quickeneth whom he will; that unto him
60
he God hath
61
given the Spirit without measure; and o/ his fulness
have all we received; that &2 he that is joined unto the
Lord is one Spirit ; and that 63 hereby we know that we
dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us his
Spirit. By all which it doth appear, that the mystery
of our union with Christ consisteth mainly in this that :

the selfsame Spirit which is in him, as in the head, is so


derived from him into every one of his true members, that
thereby they are animated and quickened to a spiritual life.
We read in the first of Ezekiel of four living creatures
and of four wheels standing by them. When those went,
saith the text, these went; and when those stood, these
stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth,
the wheels were lifted up over against them. He that
should behold such a vision as this would easily conclude
by that which he saw, that some invisible bands there were
61 "2
57 Heb. i. 3.
58 1
Cor. xv. 45. John i. 16. 1 Cor. vi, 17-
59 60 63 John iii. 24
John v. 21. John iii. 34. 1 ; iv. 13.
1
COMMONS HOUSE OF 1'ARLIAMEN'T. 667

by which these wheels and living creatures were joined to-


gether, howsoever none did outwardly appear unto the eye;
and the Holy Ghost, to give us satisfaction herein, dis-
covereth the secret, by yielding this for the reason of this
strange connexion, that the spirit of the living creature was
in the wheels, Ezekiel i. 21. From whence we may infer,
that things may truly be joined together, though the manner
of the conjunction be not corporal, and that things distant
in place
may be united together by having the spirit of the
one communicated unto the other.
Nay, if we mark it well, we shall find it to be thus
in
every of our own bodies, that the formal reason of the
union of the members consisteth not in the continuity of
the parts, though that also be requisite to the unity of a
natural body, but in the animation thereof by one and the
same spirit. If we should suppose a body to be as high
as the heavens, that the head thereof should be where Christ
our Head is, and the where we his members are, no
feet
sooner could that head of moving one of the toes
think
but instantly the thing would be done, without any impedi-
ment given by that huge distance of the one from the
other. And why ? because the same soul that is in the
head, as in the fountain of sense and motion, is present
likewise lowest member of the body.
in the But if it
should so out that this or any other member proved
fall

to be mortified, it presently would cease to be a member


of that body, the corporal conjunction and continuity with
the other parts notwithstanding. And even thus it is in
M the
Christ, regard of his corporal presence
although in
heaven must receive him until the times of the restitution
G5
of all things yet is he here
; with us alway, even unto
the end of the world, in respect of the presence of his

Spirit ; by the vital influence whereof from him, as from


6r
the head, 'the whole body is fitly joined together and com-

pacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the


effectualworking in the measure of every part. Which
quickening Spirit, if it be wanting in any, no external com-
munion with Christ or his Church can make him a true
member of this mystical body, this being a most sure

"4 6S
Acts iii. 21. Matt, xxviii. 20. lilies, iv. Ifi.
668 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE

principle, that he which hath not the Spirit of Christ is


none of his, Rom. viii. 9.

all the graces that are


Now, among wrought in us by
the Spirit of Christ, the soul as it were of all the rest,
and that whereby 67 the just doth live, is faith. 68
For we
through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by
faith, saith St Paul to the Galatians. And again, 7 live, 69

yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I
now live in the Jlesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. By faith it is that
we do 70 receive Christ, and so likewise n Christ dwelleth in
our hearts by faith. Faith, therefore, is that spiritual mouth
in us
whereby we eat the Jlesh of the Son of man, and
drink his blood, that is, as the Apostle expresseth it with-
out the trope, are made partakers of Christ; he being
by this means as truly and every ways as effectually made
ours as the meat and drink which we receive into our
natural bodies.
But you will say, If this be all the matter, what do
we get by coming to the Sacrament, seeing we have faith
and the quickening Spirit of Christ before we come hither?
To this I answer, that the Spirit is received 73 in divers
measures, and faith bestowed upon us in different degrees,
by reason whereof our conjunction with Christ may every
day be made straiter, and the hold which we take of him
firmer. To receive the Spirit not by measure, is the pri-
vilege of our Head: we that 75 receive out of his fulness
have not our portion of grace delivered unto us all at once,
but must daily look for 76 supply of the Spirit of Jesus
Christ. So also, while we are in this world, ""'the right-
eousness of God is revealed unto us from faith to faith,
that from one degree and measure of it to another; and
is,

consequently we must still labour to ^perfect that which is


lacking in our faith, and evermore pray with the Apostles,
79 s
Lord, increase our faith. As we have, therefore, received
67 Habak. Rom. we have
ii. 4 ; i. 17 ; Gal. iii. Domini, Serm. xi. By the one

11; Heb. x.38. life, by the other we have it more abun-


68 69 John x.
Gal. v. 5. Gal. ii. 20. dantly. 10.
70 John 74 John iii. 34. 75
i. 12. 71
Ephes. iii. 17. John i. 16.
72 Heb. iii. 14. 76 Phil. i. 19. 77 R om . i. 17.
73 Aliud est nasci de 78 1 79
Spiritu, aliud pasci Thess. iii. 10. Luke xvii. 5.
de Spiritu, saith St Augustine de Verbis 80
Coloss. ii. 6, 7.
COMMONS HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT. 669

Christ Jesus the Lord, so must we walk in him,


and up in him, and stablished in the faith, that we
built
s]
may grow up into him in all things, which is the Head.
And to this end God hath ordained public officers in his
82
Church, /or the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till
we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the know-
ledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; and hath
*3
accordingly made them able ministers of the Spirit that
M
quickeneth, and ministers by whom we should believe, even
as the Lord shall give to every man. When we have, there-
85 66
fore, received the Spirit and faith, and so spiritual life,
87
by their ministry, we are not there to rest, but s new-
born babes we must desire the sincere milk of the word,
that we may grow thereby and as grown men too we must ,

desire to be fed the Lord's table, that


by the strength
at
of that spiritual repast we may be enabled to do the Lord's
work, and may continually be nourished up thereby in the
life of
grace unto the life of glory.
Neither must we here with a fleshly eye look upon the
meanness of the outward elements, and have this faithless
thought in our hearts, that there is no likelihood a bit of
bread and a draught of wine should be able to produce
such heavenly effects as these. For so we should prove our-
selves to be no wiser than 8s Naaman the Syrian was, who,

having received direction from the man of God that he


should wash in Jordan seven times, to be cleansed of his
leprosy, replied with indignation, Are not Abana and
Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters
of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean? But
as his servants did soberly advise him then, If the prophet
had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have
done it ? How much rather then when he saith to thee,
Wash, and be clean ? so give me leave to say unto you
now, If the Lord had commanded us to do some great
thing for the attaining of so high a good, should not we
willingly have done it? How much rather then when he
biddeth us to eat the bread and drink the wine that he
81 S2 85 86
Ephes. iv. 15. Eph. iv. 12, 13. Gal. iii. 2. John xvii. 20.
83 84 37
2 Cor. iii. fi. 1 Cor. iii. 5. 1 Pet. ii. 2. -2
Kings v. 12, 13.
670 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE

hath provided for us at his own table, that by his blessing


thereupon we may grow in grace, and be preserved both in
body and soul unto everlasting life ?
True it is indeed, these outward creatures have no natural
power in them to effect so great a work as this is, no more
than the water of Jordan had to recover the leper; but the
work wrought by these means is supernatural, and God hath
been pleased, in the dispensation both of the word and of
the Sacraments, so to ordain it that these heavenly treasures
should be presented unto us 8g in earthen vessels, that the
excellency of the power might be of God. As therefore in
the preaching of the gospel the minister not dare doth
verba, and beat the air with a fruitless sound, but the
words that he speaketh unto us are spirit and life, 90 God
being pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save them
that believe;so likewise in the administration of the Lord^s

Supper, he doth not feed us with bare bread and wine, but
if we have the life of faith in us, (for still we must re-

member that this table is


provided not for the dead, but
9l
for the living), and come worthily, the cup of blessing which
he blesseth will be unto us the communion of the blood of
Christ, and the bread which he breaketh the communion of
the body of Christ; of which precious body and blood we

being really made partakers, that is, in truth and in deed,


and not in
imagination only, although in a spiritual and
92
not a corporal manner, the Lord doth grant us, accord-

ing of his glory, to be strengthened with might


to the riches

by his Spirit in the inner man, that we may be filled with


all the fulness of God. For the Sacraments, as well as the
word, be a part of that ministration of the Spirit which
ministers of the New Testament; for-
93
is committed to the

asmuch as by one Spirit (as before we have heard from the


Apostle) *we have been all baptized into one body, and have
9

been all made to drink into one Spirit.


And thus have I finished the 1
first
part of my task,
as I call
" the
my Congregatio homogeneorum, it, knitting
together of those that appertain to the
same body both
with their fellow-members and with their Head;" which is
the thing laid down in the express words of my text. It

89 92 93
2 Cor. iv. 7.
90
1 Cor. i. 21. | Ephes.iii. 16,19. 2 Cor. iii. 6, 8.
91 94 1 Cor. xii. 13.
1 Cor. x. 16.
1
COMMONS HOUSE OF I'ARLIAMKNT.

remaineth now, that I proceed to the Apostle's application


hereof unto the argument he hath in hand, which is Segre-
" a
gatio heterogeneorum, dissevering of those that be not
of the same communion," that the faithful may not partake
with idolaters by countenancing or any way joining with
them in their ungodly courses. For that this is the main

scope at which St Paul aimeth in his treating here of the


Sacrament, is evident both by that which goeth before in
the 19th verse, Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from
idolatry, and that which folio weth in the 21st, Ye cannot
drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils ; ye
cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table

of devils.
Whereby we may collect thus much, that as the Lord's

Supper a seal of our conjunction one with another and


is

with Christ our Head, so is it an evidence of our dis-

junction from idolaters, binding us to disavow all communion


with them in their false worship. And, indeed, the one must
necessarily follow upon the other, considering the nature of
this heinous sin of idolatry is such that it can no ways stand
with the fellowship which a Christian man ought to have
both with the Head and with the body of the Church. To
this purpose in the sixth of the second to the Corinthians
95
we read thus What agreement hath the temple of God
:

with idols for ye are the temple of the living God, as God
?

hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and


I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Where-
fore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith
the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will
receive you; and in the second chapter of the Epistle to
the Colossians, **Let no man beguile you of your reward in
a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding
into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up

by his fleshly mind, and not holding the Head, from which
all the body by joints and bands having nourishment minis-

tered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of


God. In which words the Apostle sheweth unto us that
such as, under pretence of humility, were drawn to the wor-
shipping of angels, did not hold the Head, and consequently
could not retain communion with the body, which receiveth
95
2 Cor. vi. 10, 17.
* Col. ii. 18, 19.
672 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE

its whole growth from thence. Answerably whereunto the


Fathers assembled out of divers provinces of Asia in the
Synod held at Laodicea, not far from the Colossians, did
" 97
Christians ought not to forsake
solemnly conclude, that
the Church of God, and go and invocate angels," and pro-
nounced an anathema against any that should be found to
"
because," say they, "he hath forsaken our Lord
98
do so,
Jesus Christ the Son of God, and given himself to idolatry ;"
declaring plainly, that by this idolatrous invocation of
angels
a discessionwas made both from the Church of God, as
they note in the beginning, and from Christ the Head of
the Church, as they observe in the end of their canon.
For the further understanding of this particular it will
not be amiss to consider what Theodoret, a famous bishop
of the ancient Church, hath written of this matter in his

Commentary upon the second to the Colossians, that is,


" that defended the " induced them saith
They law," he,
also to worship the angels, saying that the law was given

by them. And this vice continued in Phrygia and Pisidia


for a long time, for which cause also the Synod assembled
in Laodicea, the chief city of Phrygia, forbade them by a
law to pray unto angels. And even to this day among
them and their borderers there are oratories of St Michael
to be seen. This, therefore, did they counsel to be done,
using humility, and saying, that the God of all was invisi-
ble, and inaccessible, and incomprehensible and that it was ;

fit men should get God^s favour by the means of angels.


And this is it which the Apostle saith, In humility and
worshipping of angels" Thus far Theodoret, whom Car-
dinal Baronius discerning to come somewhat close unto him,
and to touch the idolatry of the popish crew a little to the
quick, leaveth the poor shifts wherewith his companions
labour to obscure the light of this testimony, and telleth
us plainly, that " "Theodoret, by his leave, did not well

97 Concil. Laodicen. Can. xxxv. "On "OTI ey/cctTe'A nre TOV Kupiov
ov 5cT X/oi(mai/ous ey/ca-raXei7reu/ TI]V XptirTOV, TOV vlov TOV Qeov,
eKK\r)ariav TOV Geou, nai dirievai, KO.I
99 Ex his
ayyeXous ovofj-d^eLv, that is, -rote ccyye- videas, quod necessario dicen-
Xois irpoc-ed^eaQai, or, evyevQai dyye- dum est, Theodoretum haud satis feliciter,
Xois, as Theodoret expounded! these ejus pace sit dictum, assecutum esse Pauli
words of the Canon, in cap. ii. et iii. verborum sensum. Baron. Annal. Tom.
Epist. ad Coloss. i. Ann. LX. sect. 20.
t<iMMO\s IIOlsi; 01 I'AllI.I AM KXT.

1
understand the meaning of Paul's words;' and I00 that
oratories of St Michael were erected " anciently by Catholics,"
and not by those " heretics" which were condemned in t Ill-
Council of Laodicea, as he mistook the matter. As if any
wise man would be persuaded upon his bare word, that the
memory of things done in Asia so long since should be
more fresh in Rome at this day than in the time of Theo-

doret, who hundred years ago.


lived twelve
Yet mustneeds confess, that he sheweth a little more
I

modesty herein than Bellarmine his fellow-cardinal doth, who


would make us believe that the place in the nineteenth of
the Revelation, where the angel saith to St John, that would
have worshipped him, See thou do it not : I am thy fellow-
servant ; worship God, maketh for them ; and demandeth
very soberly,
(t lol
Why they should be reprehended who do
the same thing that John did ?" and, " Whether the Cal-
vinists knew better than John whether angels were to be
adored or no?" And as for invocation of them, he telleth
us that 102 St Jacob plainly prayed unto an angel in the
forty-eighth of Genesis, when in blessing the sons of Joseph
he said, The angel which delivered me from all evil bless
those children. Whom for answer we remit to St Cyril, in
the chapter of the third book of his
first Thesaurus, and
entreat him to tell us how near of kin he is here to those
heretics of whom St Cyril there speaketh. His words be
these :
" That he doth not mean," in that place, Genesis
xLviii. 16, "an angel, as the HERETICS understand it, but
the Son of God, is manifest by this, that when he had said,
The angel, he presently addeth, who delivered me from all
evils:" which St Cyril presupposeth no good Christian will
ascribe to any but to God alone.
But come more near yet unto that which is idolatry
to
most properly. An idol, we must understand, in the exact
propriety of the term, doth signify any image ; but accord-
ing to the ecclesiastical use of the word it noteth such an
image as is set up for religious adoration. And in this

100
Incaute nimis, quae a Catholicis es- hanne norunt Calvinista, sintne angeli
sent antiquitus instituta, haereticis, quorum adorandi? Bellar. de Sanctor. Beatitud.
nulla esset memoria, tribuens. Id. ibid. lib. i. cap. 14.
101 102
Cur nos reprehendimur, qui facimus Hie aperte S. Jacob angelum invoca-
quod Johannes fecit? num melius Jo- vit. Id. ibid. cap. 19.

u u
674 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE

latter sense we charge the adherents of the Church of Rome


I03
with gross because that, contrary to God's express
idolatry ;

commandment, they are found to be worshippers of images.


Neither will it avail them here to say, that the idolatry
forbidden in the Scripture is that
only which was used by
Jews and Pagans. The
Apostle, indeed, in this place de-
horting Christians from idolatry, propoundeth the fall of the
Jews in this kind before their eyes ^Neither be ye idolaters,
:

saith he, as some of them were. And so doth he also add


concerning another sin, in .the verse following : Neither let

us commit fornication, as some of them committed. As


well, then, might one plead that Jewish or heathenish for-
nication were here only reprehended, as Jewish or heathenish

idolatry. But as the one is a foul sin, whether it be com-


mitted by Jew, Pagan, or Christian; so if such as profess
the name of Christ shall practise that which the word of
God condemneth in Jews and Pagans for idolatry, their pro-
fession is so farfrom diminishing, that it augmenteth rather,
lo5
the heinousness of the crime. The idols of the heathen
are silver and gold, the work of men's hands, saith the
Psalmist; and so the idols (of Christians, in all likelihood)
mentioned in the Revelation are said to be m of gold, and
silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood; which neither
can see, nor hear, nor walk. The description of these idols,
we see, agreeth in all points with popish images where is :

any difference ?

The heathen, say they, held the images themselves to


be gods, which is from our thought. Admit some of
far
the simpler sort of the heathen did so; what shall we say
of the Jewish idolaters, of whom the Apostle here speaketh,
who erected the golden calf in the wilderness ? Can we think
that they were all so senseless as to imagine that the calf,
which they knew was not at all in rerum natura, and had
no being at that time when they came out of Egypt, should
lm
yet be that God which brought them up out of the land
of Egypt? And for the heathen, did the Romans and
Grecians, when they dedicated in several places an hundred
the king of
images, for example, to the honour of Jupiter,
all their gods, think that thereby they had made an hundred

105
103
See for this the excellent Homily of 104 1 Cor. x. 7, 8. Psalm cxxxv. 15.
106 107 Exod. xxxii. 4.
the Peril of Idolatry. Rev. ix. 20.
COMMONS' HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT. 675

Jupiters? or, when their blocks were so old that they had
need to have new placed in their stead, did they think by
this change of their images that they made change also of
their gods? Without question they must
so have thought,
if did take themselves
the to be their
they very images
gods; and yet the Prophet bids us consider diligently, and
we shall find that the heathen nations did not change their
gods, Jerem. ii. 10, 11. Nay, what do we meet with more
usually in the writings of the Fathers than these answers
of the heathens for themselves? " 108 worship the gods We
by the images."
" 109 We
fear not them, but those to whose

image they are made, and to whose names they are con-
" 110 I do not
secrated." worship that stone, nor that image
which is
"
I neither worship the image
without sense." U1

nor a but
spirit in it
; by the bodily portraiture I do be-
hold the sign of that thing which I ought to worship."
But admit they did not account the image itself to be
God, will the Papist further say, yet were those images set
up to represent either things that had no being, or devils,
or false gods, and in that respect were idols; whereas we
erect images only to the honour of the true God, and of
his servants the saints and angels. To this I might oppose
that answer of the heathen to the Christians " 112 We do :

not worship evil spirits: such as you call angels, those do


we also worship, the powers of the great God, and the
ministers of the great God ;" and put them in mind of
St Augustine^s reply: " 113 I would you did worship them;
you should easily learn of them not to worship them." But
1

I grant unto them that many of the idolatrous Jews'


will
1
and heathens images were such as they say they were; yet
I deny that all of them were such, and confidently do avouch,
that idolatry is committed by yielding adoration to an image

108
Deos per simulacra veneramur. Ar- colo ; sed per effigiem corporalem ejus rei
nob. lib. vi. advers. Gentes. signum intueor, quam colere debeo. Id.
109
Non ipsa, inquiunt, timemus, sed in Psal. cxiii. Cone. 2.
112
eos ad quorum imaginem ficta, et quorum Non colimus mala daemonia
ange- :

nominibus consecrata sunt. Lact. Divin. los quos nos colimus, vir-
dicitis, ipsos et
Institut. lib. ii. cap. 2. tutes Dei magni, etministeria Dei magni.
110
Non ego ilium lapidem colo, nee Id. in Psal. xcvi.
simulacrum quod est sine sensu. 113
illud Utinam ipsos colere velletis ; facile

Augustin. in Psal. xcvi. i


ab ipsis disceretis non illos colere. Id.
111
Nee simulacrum nee dzemonium ibid.

u u2
676 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE

God himself. For proof whereof (omitting the


of the true
114
idols Micah and 115 Jeroboam, which were erected to
of
the memory of Jehovah the God of Israel, as also the
Athenians' superstitious worship of the lle
unknown God,
Acts xvii. 23, if, as the common use of idolaters was, they
added an image to their altar,) I will content
myself with
these two places of Scripture, the one whereof concerneth
the Jews, the other the heathen. That which toucheth the
heathen is in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans,
where the Apostle having said that God had shewed unto
them that which might be known of him, and that the
invisible things of him, that is, his eternal power and
Godhead, was manifested unto them by the creation of the
world and the contemplation of the creatures; he addeth
presently, that God was sorely displeased with them, and
therefore gave them up unto vile affections, because they

changed the glory of that uncorruptible God into an image


made like to corruptible men, and to birds, and fourfooted
beasts, and creeping things. Whereby it is evident, that the
idolatry condemned in the wisest of the heathen was the
adoring of the invisible God, whom they acknowledged to
be the Creator of all things, in visible images fashioned to
the similitude of men and beasts.
The
other place of Scripture is the fourth of Deutero-

nomy, where Moses useth this speech unto the children of


Israel: The Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the

Jire ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude ;


:

only ye heard a voice, verse 12. And what doth he infer


upon this? Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves,
saith he verse, for ye saw no manner of
in the 15th
similitude on day that the Lord spake unto you in
the
Horeb, out of the midst of the Jire : lest ye corrupt your-
selves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of

114
Judges xvii. 3, 13. mount Carmel, non simulacra aut templo 7
115
2 Kings x. 16, 29, 31. sed ara tantum ; so it might be that the
116
Trebellius Pollio, in the Life of Athenians also did the like, especially if
Claudius, calleth the God of Moses in- we consider that their ara misericordias
certum Numen ; so doth Lucan the God (which possibly might be the same with
of the Jews, Pharsal. lib. ii. Et dedita this) is thus described
by Statius, lib. xii.
sacris Incerli Judcea Dei. As therefore Thebaidos Nulla autem effigies, nulli
:

the Jews, by the relation of Tacitus, commissa metallo Forma Dei ; mentes ha~
Hist. lib. ii. worshipped their God in bitare et pectora gaudet.
COMMONS' HOUSI: 01 i> .\HU\MK\I 6*77

////// figure, the likeness of mule or female, the likeness of


mnj he fist that is on the earth, the likeness of any
winged
fowl that Jlieth in the air, the likeness of any thing that
rrccpeth on the ground, the likeness of any Jish that is in
the waters beneath the earth. Where we may observe,
first, God in the delivery of the law did purposely
that
use a voice only, because that such a creature as that was
not to be expressed by visible lineaments, as if that voice
should have said unto the painter as Echo is
feigned to
117
do in the Poet:

Vane, quid affectas faciem mihi ponere, pictor?


Si mihi vis similem pingere, pinge sonum.

Secondly, that when he the words of the second


uttered
commandment in mount
Sinai, and forbade the making of
the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in
the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth, he
did at that time forbear to shew himself in any visible
shape, either of man or woman, either of beast in the earth,
fowl in the air, or fish in the waters beneath the earth, to
the end might be the better made known that it was
it

his pleasure not to be adored at all in any such forms, and


that the worshipping of images, not only as they have
reference to the creatures whom they do immediately repre-
sent, or to false gods, but also as they have relation to
himself, the true God, who was then speaking unto them
in the mount, did come within the compass of the idolatry
which was condemned in that commandment.
In vain, therefore, do the Romanists go about to per-
suade us that their images be no idols, and as vainly also
do they spend time in curiously distinguishing the several

degrees of worship ; the highest point whereof, which they


call Latreia, and acknowledge to be due only unto God,

they would be loth we should think that they did com-


municate to any of their images. But here we are to
understand, first of all, that idolatry may be committed by
giving not the highest only, but also the lowest degree of
religious adoration unto images; and therefore, in the words
of the commandment, the very bowing down unto them, which
is one of the meanest
degrees of worship, is expressly for-
117
Ausonius, Epigram, xi.
678 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE

118
bidden. Secondly ,
r

that it is the received doctrine of


Popish divines, that the image should be honoured with
the same
worship wherewith that thing is worshipped whose
image it is; and therefore what adoration is due to Christ
and the Trinity, the same by this ground they are to give
unto their images. Thirdly, that in the Roman Pontifical
published by the authority of Clement the Eighth, (to omit
other testimonies in this kind), it is concluded, 119 that the
cross of the Pope's legate shall have the right hand,
upon
" because the wor-
this very reason, quia debetur ei latria,
ship proper to God is due to it." Now whether they commit
idolatry, who communicate unto a senseless thing that worship
which they themselves confess to be due unto God alone, let
all the world
judge.
They were best, therefore, from henceforth confess them-
selves to be idolaters, and stand to it that
every kind of
120
idolatry is not unlawful. Their Jesuit, Gregorius de
Valentia, will tell them for their comfort, that it is no
absurdity to think that St Peter, when he deterreth the
faithful by name ab illicitis idolorum cultibus, (afle/uiroys
eiStt>Ao\aT|oem9
St Peter calleth them, that is abominable

idolatries), doth insinuate thereby that 121 some worship of

images is lawful. John Monceye, the Frenchman, in his


Aaron Purgatus, dedicated to the late Pope Paul the Fifth,
and in his twenty questions propounded to Visorius, stretcheth

yet a strain higher. For howsoever he cannot away with the


name of idols and idolatry, yet he liketh the thing itself so
well, that he undertaketh to clear Aaron from committing
any error in setting up the golden calf, and laboureth to
purge Laban, and Micah, and Jeroboam too, from the im-
putation of idolatry, having found indeed that nothing had
been done by them in this kind which is not agreeable to
the practice of the Roman Church at this day.
And lest the poor people, whom they have so miserably
abused, should find how far they have been misled, we see
that the masters of that Church do, in the service-books

118 a dextris. Pontifical, edit. Roman,


Constans est theologorum sententia, erit

imaginem eodem honor e et cultu honorari p. 672.


120
et coli, quo colitur id cujus est imago. Gregor. Valent. Apol. de Idololatr.
Azor. Institut. Moral, part. i. lib. ix. lib. ii. cap. 7-
121
cap. 6. Some idolatry, he should say ; for that
119
Crux legati, quia debetur ei latria, is St Peter's word. 1 Pet. iv. 3.
COMMONS HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT. 679

and catechisms which come unto the hands of the vulgar,


generally leave out the words of the second commandment
that make against the adoration of images, fearing lest by
the light thereof the mystery of their iniquity should be
discovered. They pretend, indeed, that this commandment
is not excluded
by them, but included only in the first ;
whereas in truth they do but craftily conceal it from the
people's eyes, because they would not have them to be ruled
122
by it.
Vasquez the Jesuit doth boldly acknowledge,
Nay,
that plainly appeareth by comparing the words of this
it

commandment with the place which hath been alleged out


of the fourth of Deuteronomy, that the Scripture did not
only forbid the worshipping of an image for God, but also
the adoration of the true God himself in an image. He
confesseth further, that he and his fellow-Catholics do other-
wise. What saith he then to the commandment, think you ?
it must be
Because it will not be obeyed repealed, and not
admitted to have any place among the moral precepts of God.
I23
lt was, saith he, a positive and ceremonial law, and there-
fore ought to cease in the time of the Gospel. And as if
it had not been enough for him to match the scribes and
Pharisees in impiety, who m
made the commandment of God
of none effect,
that they might keep their own tradition,
that he might fulfil the measure of his fathers, and shew
himself to be a true child of her who beareth the name of
being the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth,
he is yet more mad, and sticketh not to maintain, that not
126
only a painted image, but any other thing of the world,
whether it be without life and reason, or whether it be a
reasonable creature, may (in the nature of the thing, and
if the matter be discreetly handled) be adored with God, as
his image; yea, and counteth it no absurdity at all, that a

very wisp of straw should be thus worshipped.


But let us turn yet again, and we shall see greater

122
Gab. Vasquez. de Adorat. lib. ii. gelica locum habere debet. Vasquez.
Disput. iv. cap. 3, sect. 74, 75. ibid. cap. 4, sect. 84.
23
Cum fuerit juris positivi et caeremo- 124
Matt. xv. 6; Mark vii. 9.
nialis ilia legis Mosaics; prohibitio, tern-
125
Rev. xvii. 5.
pore legis evangelicae debuit cessare, atque
126
id, quod alias jure naturali licitum et ho- Vasquez. de Adorat. lib. iii. Disput
nestum est, ut imagines depingere, et illis i. cap. 2, sect. 5, 8, 10.
uti ad adorationem, in lege evan- w Ezck. viii. 15.
680 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE

abominations than these. We heard how this blessed Sacra-

ment, which here propounded by the Apostle as a bond


is

to unite Christians
together in one body, hath been made
the apple of strife, and the occasion of most bitter breaches
in the Church : we may now observe again, that the same
holy Sacrament, which by the same Apostle is here
brought
in as a principal inducement to make men flee from idolatry,
is adversaries made the object of the grossest idola-
by our
try that ever hath been practised by any. For their constant
doctrine is, that in worshipping the Sacrament they should
m
latricB cultum qui vero Deo debetur, as the
give unto it
Council of Trent hath " that kind of service
determined,
which is due to the true God ;" determining their worship
in that very thing which the priest doth hold betwixt his
hands. Their practice also runs accordingly for an instance ;

whereof we need go no further than to Sanders's book of


the Lord's Supper, before which he hath prefixed an epistle
" To the
dedicatory, superscribed in this manner body and :

blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, under the forms of bread


and wine, all honour, praise, and thanks be given for ever :"
" How-
adding further in the process of that blockish epistle,
soever it be with other men, I adore thee, my God and Lord

really present under the forms of bread and wine, after consecra-
tion duly made ; beseeching thee of pardon for my sins, &C."
Now, if the men have concerning
conceit which these
the Sacrament should prove to be false, (as indeed we know
it to be most absurd and monstrous), their own Jesuit Coster

doth freely confess, that they should be in such an " error


and idolatry, qualis in orbe terrarum nunquam vel visus
vel auditus fuit, as never was seen or heard of in this
world." " 129
For the error of them is more tolerable," saith
" who God a statue of gold or silver, or
he, worship for
an image of any other matter, as the Gentiles adored their
gods or a red cloth lifted up upon a spear, as it is reported
;

of the Lappians; or living creatures, as did sometime the


Egyptians; than of those that worship a piece of bread."

128
Concil. Trident. Sess. xin. cap. 5. rabantur, vel pannum rubrum in hastam
129
Tolerabilior est enim error
eorum elevatum, quod narratur de Lappis, vel
qui pro Deo colunt statuam auream aut viva animalia, ut quondam ./Egyptii,
argenteam, aut alterius materiae imagi- quam eorum qui frustum panis. Coster.
nem, quo modo gentiles deos suos vene- Ench. cap. 12.
COMMONS HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT; 681

We, who are verily persuaded that the Papists do


therefore,
thus, must of force, if we follow their Jesuit's direction, judge
them to be the most intolerable idolaters that ever were.
Nay, according to their own principles, how is it pos-
sible that any of themselves should certainly know that the
host which they worship should be any other thing but
bread? seeing the change doth wholly depend upon "con-
secration duly made," as Sanders speaketh, and that dependeth

upon the intention of the priest, which no man but himself


can have notice of. Bellarmine, disputing against Ambrosius
Catharinus, one of his own brethren, that a man hath no
certainknowledge of his own justification, can take advantage
of and allege for himself, that one " 130 cannot be cer-
this,
tain by the certainty of faith that he doth receive a true

Sacrament, forasmuch as the Sacrament cannot be made


without the intention of the minister, and none can see
another man's intention." Apply this now to the matter we
have in hand, and see into what intricate labyrinths these
men have brought themselves. Admit the priest's intention
stood right at the time of consecration, yet if he that bap-
tized him failed in his intention when he administered that
Sacrament, he remaineth still
unbaptized, and so becometh
uncapable of priesthood ; and consequently whatsoever he
consecrateth is but bread still. Yea, admit he were rightly
baptized too, if either the bishop that conferred upon him
the Sacrament of orders, (for so they hold it to be), or
those that baptized or ordained that bishop, missed their

right intention, neither will the one prove bishop, nor the
other priest; and so with what intention soever either the
one or the other doth consecrate, there remaineth but bread
still. Neither doth the inconvenience stay here, but ascendeth
upward to all their predecessors, in any one of whom if
there fall out to be a nullity of priesthood, for want of
intention either in the baptizer or in the ordainer, all the

generation following, according to their principles, go with-


out their priesthood too, and so deliver but bread to the
people instead of the body of Christ. The Papists them-
selves, therefore, if they stand unto their own grounds, must

50
Neque potest certus esse certitudine non conficiatur, et intentionem alterius
fidei, se percipere verum sacramentum, nemo videre possit. Bellarmin. de Jus-
cum sacramentum sine intentione ministri tificat. lib. iii. cap. 8.
682 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE

needs confess that they are in no better case here than the
Samaritans were in, of whom our Saviour saith, 131 Ye worship
ye know not what ; but we know that what they worship (be
the condition or intention of their priest what it will be) is
bread indeed ; which while they take to be their God, we must
still account them
guilty of spiritual fornication, and such
fornication as is not so much as named amongst the Gentiles.
These, then, being the idolaters with whom we have to
deal, let us learn, first, how dangerous a thing it is to com-
municate with them in their false worship for if we will :

be 132 par takers of Babylon's sins, we must look to receive


of her plagues. Secondly, we are to be admonished, that
it is not sufficient that in our own persons we refrain wor-

shipping of idols, but it is further required that we restrain,


as much as in us lieth, the practice thereof in others; lest

by suffering God to be dishonoured in so high a manner,


when we may by our calling hinder it, we make ourselves

partakers of other men's


Eli the high priest was a
sins.

good man, and gave excellent counsel unto his lewd sons ;
133
yet we know what judgment fell
upon him, because his
sons made themselves vile, and he frowned not upon them,
that is, restrained them not, which God doth interpret to
134
be a kind of idolatry in honouring of his sons above him.
The Church of Pergamus did for her own part hold fast
Christ's name, and denied not his faith; yet had the Lord
135
something against her, because she had there them that
held the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a
stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things
sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So we see
what special notice our Saviour taketh of the works, and
charity, and and faith, and patience of the Church
service,
of Thyatira; and yet for all this he addeth, im Notwith-
standing I have a few things against thee, because thou
sufferest that woman Jezebel,
which calleth herself a pro-
phetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit
fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
In the second of Judges God telleth the children of
Israel, what mischief should come unto them by tolerating
137
the Canaanitish idolaters in their land :
They shall be

131 132 135 Rev.


John iv. 22. Rev. xviii. 4. ii. 14. Rev. ii. 20.
133 134 137
1 Sam. iii. 13. 1 Sam. ii. 29. Judges ii. 3.
COMMONS' HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT. C83

thorns in your sides, saith he, and their gods shall be a


snare unto you. Which words contain in them the intima-
tion of a double danger, the one respecting the soul, the
other the body. That which concerneth the soul is, that
their idols should be a snare unto them: for God well
knew that man^s nature is as prone to spiritual fornication
as it is to As, therefore, for the preventing of
corporal.
the one he would not have a common harlot tolerated in
rS8
Israel, lest the land should fall to whoredom, and be-
come full of wickedness ; so for the keeping out of the
other he would have provocations taken away, and all occa-
sions whereby a man might be tempted to commit so vile
a sin. The bodily danger that folio weth upon the toleration
of idolaters is, that they should be in their sides, that is,
as in another place it is more fully expressed,
l

they should
be pricks in their eyes, and thorns in their sides, and
should vex them in the land wherein they dwelled. Now,
in both these respects it is certain that the toleration of the
idolaters with whom we have to do, is far more perilous
than of any other. In regard of the spiritual danger, where-
with simple souls are more like to be ensnared, because this
kind of idolatry is not brought in with an
open shew of
impiety, as Pagans, but is a mystery of ini-
that of the

quity, a wickedness covered with the veil of piety; and


the harlot, which maketh the inhabitants of the earth drunk
with wine of this fornication, is both gilded herself,
the
and presenteth also her abominations unto her followers in
UQ we look outward we
a cup of gold. If to peril, are like
to find these men
not thorns in our sides to vex us, but
daggers in our hearts to destroy us. Not that I take all
of them to be of this furious disposition, (mistake me not;
I know a number myself of a far different temper;) but
because there are never wanting among them some turbu-
lenthumours, so inflamed with the spirit of fornication that
they run mad with it, and are transported so far that no
tolerableterms can content them, until they have attained
to the utmost pitch of their unbridled desires: for com-

passing whereof there is no treachery, nor rebellion, nor


murder, nor desperate course whatsoever, that, without all
remorse of conscience, they dare not adventure upon.
138
Lcvit. xix. 21. 13D
Num. xxxiii. 55. I4
Rev. xvii. 2, 4.
684 A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE

Neither do they thus only, but they teach men also so


to arming both Pope, and bishops, and people, and
do,
private persons, with power to cast down even kings them-
selves from their thrones, if they stand in their
way and
give any impediment to their designs. Touching the Pope's
power herein there is no disputing: one of them telleth us,
that " 141
there is no doubt but the Pope may depose all

kings, when there is a reasonable cause so to do." For


bishops, Cardinal Baronius informeth us, by the example of
Dacius the Bishop of Milan's dealing against the Arians,
142
that " those bishops deserve no blame, and ought to suffer
no envy, who roll every stone," (yea, and rather than fail,
would blow up stones too), " that they may not live under
an heretical prince." For the people, Dominicus Bannes, a
Dominican friar, resolves that they need not, in this case,
expect any sentencing of the matter by Pope or other, but
143
when the knowledge of the
fault is evident, subjects

may lawfully, if so be they have sufficient strength, exempt


themselves from subjection to their princes, before any de-
claratory sentence of a judge." And that we may understand
that the proviso which he inserteth " of having strength
sufficient," is very material, he putteth us in mind, that
" the faithful" (the Papists he meaneth) "of England are
144

to be excused hereby, who do not exempt themselves from the


power of their superiors, nor make war against them ; because
that generally they have not power sufficient to make such wars

against princes, and great dangers are imminent over them."


Lastly, for private persons we may read in Suarez, that
an heretical king, " 145
after sentence given against him, is

141
Dubium non est, quin Papa possit 144
Ex hac conclusione sequitur, esse
omnes reges, cum subest causa rationabi- excusandos Anglicanos et Saxonios fide-
lis, deponere. Augustin. Triumphus, de les, qui non se eximunt a potestate supe-

Potest. Ecclesiast. Quaest. XLVI. Art. 2. riorum, nee bellum contra illos gerunt;
142
Quo exemplo satis intelligas, non quoniam communiter non habent facul-
merer! calumniam, neque invidiam epi- tatem ad base bella gerenda contra prin-
scopos illos pati debere, qui ne sub haere- cipes, et imminent ill is gravia pericula.
tico principe degant, omnem lapidem Id. ibid.
volvunt. Baron, anno 538, sect. 89.
145
Post sententiam latam omnino pri-
143
Quando adest evidens notitia cri- vatur regno, ita ut non possit justo titulo

minis, licite possunt subditi, si modo eis illud possidere ; ergo extunc poterit tan-
vires suppetant, eximere se a potestate quam omnino tyrannus tractari, et conse-

suorum principum ante Judicis sententiam quenter a quocunque privato poterit inter-
declaratoriam.Bannes in Thorn, n. 2, fici.Fr. Suarez. Defens. Fid. Cathol.lib.

Quaest. xn. Artie. 2. vi. cap. 4, sect, 14.


COMMONS HOUSE OF 1A It 1.1 A M K NT.

absolutely deprived of his kingdom, so that he cannot pos-


sess by any just title; and therefore from thenceforth
it

may be handled altogether as a tyrant, and consequently he


may be killed by any private person." Only the Jesuit
addcth this limitation, that " 146 if the Pope do depose the
king, he may be expelled or killed by them only to whom
he shall commit that business. But if he enjoin the execu-
tion thereof to nobody, then it shall appertain to the lawful
successor in the kingdom ; or if none such be to be found,
11
it
belong to the kingdom itself.
shall But let him once
be declared to be a tyrant, Mariana, Suarez's countryman
and fellow-Jesuit, will tell you better how he should be
handled: " H7 That a tyrant, saith he, " may be killed by
11

open force and arms, whether by violent breaking in into


the court, or by joining of battle, is a matter confessed;

yea, and by deceit and ambushes too, as Ehud did in killing


Eglon the king of the Moabites. Indeed it would argue
a braver mind to profess open enmity, and publicly to rush
in upon the enemy of the commonwealth; but it is no less
prudence to take advantage by fraud and ambushes, because
it is done without stir, and with less
danger surely, both
1'
" 148
public and private. His conclusion is, that it is law-
11
ful to take away his life by any art whatsoever, with this
" that he be not
proviso only, constrained, either wittingly
11
or unwittingly, to be the cause of his own death: where
the tenderness of a Jesuit's conscience is well worth the
observing. He
maketh no scruple at all to take away the
man's life, only he would advise that he be not made away
by having poison conveyed into his meat or drink, lest in
taking hereof, forsooth, he which is to be killed should by
this means have some hand in procuring his own death.

146
Si Papa regem deponat, ab illis tutis et animi simultatem aperte exercere,
tantum poterit expelli vel interfici, qui- palam in hostem reipublicae irruere; sed
bus ipse id commiserit. Quod si nulli non minoris prudentiae, fraudi et insidiis
executionem imperet, pertinebit ad legiti- locum captare, quod sine motu contingat,
mum in regno successorem ; vel si nullus minori certe periculo publico atque pri-
inventus fuerit, ad regnum ipsum specta- vato. Jo. Mariana, de Reg. Instit. lib. i.
bit. Id. ibid. sect. 18. cap. 7.
147
Itaque aperta vi et armis posse occidi 148
In ejus vitam grassari quacunque
tyrannum, sive impetu in regiam facto, arte concessum,ne cogatur tantum sciens
sive commissa pugna, in confesso est. aut imprudens sibi conscire mortem. Id.
Sed et dolo atque insidiis exceptum, quod ibid, in fine.
fecit Aiod, &c. Est quidem majoris vir-
686 A SERMON PJIEACHED BEFORE THE

19
Yet poison him you may, if you list, so that the venom
be "externally applied by some other, he that is to be killed
helping nothing thereunto; namely, when the force of the
poison is so great that a seat or garment being infected
therewith, it may have strength to kill." And that such
means of poisoning hath been used, he proveth by divers
practices of the Moors, which we leave to be considered of
by who, to prove that Squires's intention of
Fitzherbert,
poisoning Queen Elizabeth in this manner was but a mere
fiction, would persuade us that it is not agreeable to the

grounds of nature and reason that any such thing should be.
Thus we see what pestilent doctrine is daily broached
by these incendiaries of the world; which what pernicious
effects hath produced, I need not
it
go far to exemplify :

this assembly and this place cannot but call to mind the
memory of that barbarous plot of the Powder-Treason ;
which being most justly charged to have " 150 exceeded all
measure of cruelty," as involving not the king alone, but
also his children, and the states of the kingdom, and many
thousands of innocent people, in the same ruin, a wicked
varlet, with whose name I will not defile this place, steppeth
forth some four years after, and with a brazen forehead
biddeth us not to wonder at the matter " For of an evil :

and pernicious herb both the seeds are to be crushed and


all the roots to be pulled up, that they grow not again.

And otherwise also for a few wicked persons it falleth out


oftentimes that many perish in shipwreck." In the latter
of which reasons we may note these men's insolent impiety
toward God, in arrogating unto themselves such an absolute
power for the murdering of innocents, as he that is Lord
of all hath over his own creatures ; the best of whom, if

he do enter into judgment with them, will not be found

righteous in his sight. In the former we may observe their

149
Hoc tatnen temperamento uti in hac 150
At inquies, omnem modum crudeli-

quidem disputatione licebit, si non ipse tatis excessitea conjuratio, cum et prolem

qui perimitur, venenutn haurire cogitur, et regni ordines simul implicuisset. Id


quo intimis medullis concepto pereat ; sed velim ne mireris. Nam malae et pernicio-
exterius ab alio adhibeatur, nihil adju- sae herbae et semina conterenda, et radices
vante eo qui perimendus est; nimirum omnes evellendae sunt, ne recrescant. Ali-
cum tanta vis est veneni, ut sella eo aut as etiam, propter paucos sceleratos, multi

veste delibuta vim interficiendi habeat. saepe naufragio pereunt. B. P. eera<r.


Id. ibid. Epistolas I. R. impress, anno 1609.
COMMONS' HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT. (587

deadly malice toward God's anointed, which they sufficiently


declare will not be satisfied but by the utter extirpation of
him and all his
royal progeny.
And whereas for the discovery of such wicked spirits
his Majesty, in wisdom, did cause an Oath of
his princely

Allegiance to be framed, by the tendering whereof he might


be the better able to distinguish betwixt his loyal and dis-
loyalsubjects, and to put a difference betwixt a seditious
and a quiet-minded Romanist ; this companion derideth his

simplicity inimagining the turn, and


that that will serve

supposing that a Papist will think himself any whit bound


" 151
by taking such an oath: See," saith he, "in so great
crafthow great simplicity doth bewray itself. When he
had placed all his security in that oath, he thought he had
found such a manner of oath, knit with so many circum-
stances, that it could not, with safety of conscience, by any
means be dissolved by any man. But he could not see,
that if the Pope did dissolve that oath, all the tyings of it,
whether of performing fidelity to the king or of admitting
no dispensation, would be dissolved together. Yea, I will
say another thing that is more admirable: you know, I
believe, that an unjust oath, if it be evidently known or

openly declared to be such, bindeth no man, but is void


ipso facto. That the king's oath is unjust, hath been suflfu

ciently declared by the pastor of the Church himself. You


see, therefore, that the obligation of it is vanished into
smoke; which by so many wise men was
so that the bond,

thought to be of iron, is become less than of straw."


If matters now be come unto this pass, that such as
are addicted to the Pope will account the Oath of Allegiance
to have less force to bind them than a rope of straw, judge

ye whether that be not true which hath been said, that in


151
Sed vide in tanta astutia quanta sit admirabilius :
nosti, credo, juramentum
simplicitas. Cum omnem securitatem in injustum, si tale esse evidenter sciatur,
eo juramento sibi statuisset, talem se mo- vel aperte declaretur, neminem obligare,
dum juramenti tot circumstantiis con- sed ipso facto nullum esse. Regis jura-
nexuisse existimabat, qui, salva conscien- mentum injustum esse, ab ipso ecclesiae
tia, nulla ratione a quoquam dissolvi pastore sufficienter declaratum est. Vides
posset. Sed videre non potuit, si Ponti- igitur jam, in summum abiisse illius ob-
fex juramentum dissolverit, omnes illius ligationem ; ut
vinculum, quod a tot

nexus, sive de fidelitate regi praestanda, sapientibus ferreum putabatur, minus sit
sive de dispensatione non adniittenda, quam stramineum. Id. ibid.
pariter dissolutos fore. Imo aliud dicam
688 SERMON BEFORE THE COMMONS.

respect ngt of spiritual infection only, but of outward danger


also to our state, any idolaters may be more safely permitted
than Papists. Which I do not speak to exasperate you
against their persons, or to stir you up to make new laws
for shedding of their blood. Their blindness I do much pity,
and heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that
my
they might be saved. Only this I must say, that, things
standing as they do, I cannot preach peace unto them.
For as Jehu said to Joram, }52 What peace, so long as the
whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are
so many ? so must I say unto them, What peace can there
153
be, so long as you suffer yourselves to be led by the mother
of harlots and abominations of the earth, who by her sor-
ceries hath deceived all nations, and made them drunk with
the wine of her fornication? 154 Let her put away her whore-
doms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her
breasts; let her repent of her murders, and her sorceries,
and her idolatries; or rather, because she is past all hope,
let those that are seduced
by her cease to communicate with
her in these abominable iniquities, and we shall be all ready
to meet them, and rejoice with the angels in heaven for their
conversion. In the meantime, they who sit at the helm, and
have the charge of our Church and commonwealth committed
to them, must provide by all good means, that God be not
dishonoured by their open idolatries, nor our king and state
endangered by their secret treacheries. Good laws there are

already enacted to this purpose, which, if they were duly


put in execution, we should have less need to think of
making new. But it is not my part to press this point.
155
I will therefore conclude as I did begin : 7 speak as to
wise men ; judge ye what I say.

2 TIMOTHY II. 7-

Consider what I say, and the Lord give you under"


standing in all things.
152 154
2 Kings ix. 22. Hosea ii. 2.
153 155
Rev. xvii. 2, 5, and xviii. 23. 1 Cor. x. 15.
BRIEF DECLARATION

OF THE

UNIVERSALITY OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST,

AND THE

UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH

PROFESSED THEREIN.

DELIVERED IN A SERMON BEFORE THE KING'S MAJESTY


THE 20"i JUNE, 1624, AT WANSTED.

XX
A SERMON,

Sp.

EFHESIANS IV. 13.

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the


knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ.

WHEN the Lord's ark was to set forward, the form


of prayer used by Moses was, l
Rise up, Lord, and let
thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee

jlee before thee. The sweet Psalmist of Israel, framing his


descant to this ground, beginneth the psalm which he pre-

pared to be sung at the removing of the ark after the


same manner, 2 Let God arise; let his enemies be scattered;
let them also that hate him Jlee before him : and then
goeth
on till at length he hath raised his note unto its full
height, Thou hast ascended up on high; thou hast led
captivity captive ; thou hast given gifts for men, Psalm
Lxviii. 18. Which being by our Apostle in 3 this chapter
interpreted of the ascension of our Saviour Christ into
heaven, and made the very spring from whence the matter
of mypresent text is derived, leadeth us to the just appli-
cation of the type to the truth, and putteth us in mind
that the removing of the ark, which gave occasion to the

penning of this psalm, was an adumbration of our Saviour's


removal from the earth to heaven; and that by this absence
of his we are no losers, but gainers, seeing he is ascended

1
Num. x. 35. *
Psalm Lxviii. 1.
3
Ephes. iv. 8, 10.

x x2
692 A SEHMON PREACHED

up on high, both triumph over his and our foes, (he led
to

captivity captive), and to confer benefits upon his friends,

(he gave gifts unto men).


The *ark of the covenant we know, was appointed to
,

be a figure of b Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant,


the great King, Prophet, and Priest of his Church there- ;

fore was it ordered that the ark should have a crown of

gold about it, (Exod. xxxvii. 2), than which what could be
more fit to set forth the state of our King ? for thus we
see Jesus crowned with glory and honour, Hebrews ii. 9.

Upon the ark stood the propitiatory or mercy-seat, whence


God did use to deliver his oracles from betwixt the cheru-
bins, than which what more lively representation could there
be of the prophetical office of our Saviour, of whom it is
written, God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son? Heb. i. 2. The ark had both the rod and the tables
of the law by God's appointment placed within it, than
which what could be more apt to express the satisfaction
which our High-priest was to make unto his Father's justice,
as well by his passive as by his active obedience ? for as
he the stroke of the rod for us, that & the chastisement
felt

of our peace being laid upon him, with his stripes we


might be healed; so ''it behoved him also to fulfil the law
and all righteousness, that so he might be *the end of the
law for righteousness to every one that believeth ; the letter
of the law being not more certainly to be found within the
ark than the accomplishment thereof within him, according
g
to that which he spake by the holy Prophet, ln the volume

of the book written of me, that I should do thy will,


it is

O God; yea, thy law is within my heart.


The ark had many removes from place to place whilst
it
sojourned in the tabernacle, but was brought up at last
Into the temple, there to dwell upon God's holy hill, the

place of which he himself had said,


l
This is my rest for
ever ; here will I dwell, for I have a delight therein :
where, at first entry, King Solomon stood ready to enter-
him with n O Lord
tain this welcome, Arise, God, into thy

Heb. ix. 4.
8
Rom. x. 4.
9
Heb. xii. 24. Psalm XL. 7, 8; Heb. x. 7.
10
Isaiah Liii. 5. Psalm cxxxii. 14, and Lxviii. 16.
11
Matt. iii. 15, and v. 17. Ps. cxxxii. 8, 9, 16; 2 Chron. vi. 41.
UKFOKE HIS MAJESTY. 693

resting-place, thou, and the ark of thy strength. Let thy


priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy
saints rejoice in goodness. Our blessed Saviour, in the days
}2
of his flesh, had no resting-place, but continually went
13
about doing good ; until at length he was received
up into
heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. For when he
had ended his progress upon earth, and ri finished there that
work which his Father had given him to do, he 15 left the
world and went to his Father, making his last remove to
lr>
the high court of heaven, where he is to reside until the
time of the restitution of all
things. The temple of God
17

was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple


the ark of his testament, saith St John in the Apocalypse.
If we look to the corporal presence of our Saviour, in the

temple of heaven must this ark be sought for, in no other


place is
it to be found; but if we look to the virtue

coming from him by the operation of his word and Spirit,


18
so we shall find him in his temple upon earth, present
with us always, even unto the end of the world; for these
were the gifts that, when he ascended into heaven, he did
bestow upon men.
This the Prophet layeth down thus }9 Thou hast ascended :

up on high ; thou hast received gifts for men. The Apostle


20
citeth it thus: When he ascended up on high, he gave
gifts unto men. The reconciliation is easy he received those :

gifts, not to retain them with himself, but to distribute them


for the behoof of his Church. So for the Spirit St Peter
teacheth us, Acts ii. 33, Therefore being by the right hand

of God exalted, (there is his ascending up on high), and


having received of the Father the promise of the Holy
Ghost, (there is his receiving), he hath shed forth this
which ye now .see
hear, (there and giving of thi? is his

gift unto men). And for the ministry of the word, he


himself intimateth as much in his commission given to the
Apostles, Matt, xxviii. 18, 19, All power is given unto me
in heaven and in earth, (there he receiveth). Go ye there-
fore, and teach all nations, (there he giveth this gift unto

12 16 |;
Acts x. 38. Actsiii. 21. Rev. xi.
11 18
Mark xvi. 19. Matt, xxviii. 20.
14
John xvii. 4.
I!)
Psalm i.xviii. 18.
15 20
John xvi. 28, and xix. 30. Ephes. iv. 8.
694 A SERMON PREACHED

men). He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and


2l

some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the


perfecting of the saints, saith our Apostle here that herein ;

also that might be fulfilled, which we heard to have been


uttered when the ark was brought to its resting-place,
22
Let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation,
and let thy saints rejoice in goodness.
The work of
the ministry, how meanly soever it be
esteemed in the world, yet in the estimation of our Saviour
Christ was one of the choicest gifts that in this solemnity
of his triumphant '^ascendingup far above all heavens he
thought bestow upon his Church here upon earth,
fit to
as that which tended both to the ^perfecting of the saints,
and to the edifying of his own body. For as '^it hath
pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell,
so the Son is also pleased not to hold it any disparage-
ment that 26 his body, the Church, should be accounted the
fulness of him that Jilleth all in all : that howsoever in
himself he be most absolutely and perfectly complete, yet
is his Church so
nearly conjoined unto him, that he holdeth
not himself full without but as long as any one member
it;
remaineth yet ungathered and unknit unto this mystical

body of his, he accounteth in the meantime somewhat to


be deficient in himself. And therefore our Apostle having,
in the words immediately going before this text, declared
that the ministry was instituted for the edifying of the body

of Christ, addeth presently, Till we all come in the unity


of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of
the fulness of Christ.
In which words we may observe as well the matter of
this building, we all, as the structure of it ; and further
also consider in the structure, Jirst, the laying of the foun-

dation, in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of


the Son of God; secondly, the bringing of the work to

perfection, and the raising of it to its just height, unto a


perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness
of Christ.
The matter, then, of this spiritual edifice, that we may
21 23 -4
Ephes. iv. 11, 12. Ephes. iv. 10. Ibid. vers. 12.
22 25 26
2Chron. vi.41; Psalm cxxxii. 0, 16. Col. i. 19. Ephes. i. 23.
BEFORE HIS MAJESTY. 695

27
begin with that, are we ourselves. Ye also as lively stones
are built up a spiritual house, saith St Peter. To this
St Paul doth here add a note of universality, WE ALL, as

suiting best with the nature of the Catholic or universal


Church, which is that body of Christ, of the edifying whereof
he here treateth; of which, therefore, he telleth us more
plainly in another place, that ^by one Spirit we are all

baptized one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles,


in
whether we be bond or free. For the Catholic Church is
not to be sought for in any one angle or quarter of the
world, but among all that in every place call upon the
name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours,
1 Cor. i. 2. Therefore to their Lord and ours was it said,
29
Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy
possession and to this mystical body, the Catholic Church,
;
30
accordingly, / will bring thy seed from the east, and
gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give
up, and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from
far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even
every one that is called by my name.
Thus must we conceive of the Catholic Church as of
one entire body, made up by the collection and aggrega-
tion of all the faithful unto the unity thereof; from which
union there ariseth unto every one of them such a relation
to, and a dependence upon, the Church Catholic, as parts
use to have in respect of their whole. Whereupon it fol-
loweth, that neither particular persons nor particular churches
are to work as several divided bodies by themselves, which
is the ground of all schism, but are to teach, and to be
taught, and to do
duties, all other Christian
parts as

conjoined unto the whole, and members of the same com-


monwealth or corporation ; and therefore the bishops of the
ancient Church, though they had the government of par-
ticularcongregations only committed unto them, yet in
regard of this communion which they held with the uni-

versal, did usually take to themselves the title of Bishops


of Catholic Church
the which maketh strongly as well
:

against the new Separatists as the old Donatists, who either

87 2B 29 30
1 Pet. ii. 5. 1 Cor. xii; 13. Psalm ii. 8. Isaiah xLiii. 57.
696 A SERMON PREACHED

31
hold it not much material, so they profess the faith
a thing
of Christ, whether they do it in the Catholic communion or
out of it; or else, which is worse, dote so much upon the
perfection own part, that they refuse to join in
of their

fellowship with the rest of the body of Christians ; as if

they themselves were the only people of God, and all wis-
dom must live and die with them and their generation.
And herein, of all others, do our Romanists most fear-

fully offend, as being the authors of the most cruel schism


that ever hath been seen in the Church of God. Those
infamous schisms of the Novatians and Donatists were but
petty rents in comparison of this huge rupture, which hath
pulled asunder east and west, north and south ; and grown
to such a head at home, that in our western parts, where
this was so prevalent, it hath for divers ages past
faction
been esteemed Catholic. In the 17th of the Revelation we
have a woman described unto us sitting upon seven moun-
tains and upon many waters. The woman is there
m that
expounded to be great city which reigneth over
the kings of the earth. The seven mountains upon which
that city sate needed not to be expounded ; every child
knew what was meant thereby. The waters are interpreted
33
peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues ; which
is that very universality and Catholicism that the Romanists

are wont so much to brag of. For this woman is the par-
ticular Church of Rome; the city-church, which they call
34
the mother-church, the Holy Ghost styleth the mother of
harlots and abominations of the earth. Those peoples,
and multitudes, and nations, and tongues, are such as
this proud city reigneth over ; the Catholic-Roman Church
they are commonly called by themselves, but by the Holy
Ghost 35 the beast upon which the woman sitteth.
This woman is the head of the faction, and the very
mother of this schism, the beast ; that is to say, they that
suffer themselves to be thus ridden by her are her abettors

31
Augustin. Epist XLVIII. Quam ubi fidem Christi teneremus ; sed gratias
raulti nihil interesse credentes in qua Domino, qui nos a divisione collegit, et
quisque parte Christianus sit, ideo per- hoc uni Deo congruere, ut in imitate cola-
manebant in parte Donati, quia ibi nati tur, ostendit.
33 33
erant, et eos inde discedere atque ad Ca- Rev. xvii. 18. Ibid. 15.
34
tholicam nemo transire cogebat. Et paullo Ibid. 5.
35
post : Putabamus quidem nihil interesse Ibid. 3 and 7.
BK10HK HIS MA. IK STY. 697

and supporters in it. For the " particular Church of Rome,"


not being content to be a fellow-member with the rest of
the churches of Christ, and to have a joint dependence with
them upon the whole body of the Church-Catholic, which
is the mother of us all, will needs go out of her rank and, ;

scorning any longer to be accounted one of the branches


of the Catholic Church, would fain be acknowledged to
be the root of it so that now all other churches must
;

hold their dependence upon it, or otherwise be cast forth


"as withered branches which are fit
only to be thrown into
the fire and burned. The wisdom of God foresaw this inso-
lency long beforehand, and therefore caused a caveat to be
entered against it even in that Epistle which was specially
directed to the Church of Rome itself: the words are
plain enough, Rom. xi. 18, If thou boast, thou bearest
not the root, but the root thee. The Church of Rome
therefore must know, that she is no more a root to bear

up other churches than other churches are to bear her up ;

she may not go beyond her line, and boast herself to be the
root of the Catholic Church, but be contented to be borne
herself by the root as well as other particular churches are.
For a stream to sever itself from the common fountain, that

it may be counted a fountain itself without dependence


upon
any other, is the next way to make an end of it and dry
it
up. The Church of Rome may do well to think of
this, and leave off her vain boasting, I sit a queen, and
am no widow, and shall see no sorrow : other churches

may fail, and the gates of hell may prevail against them but ;

it cannot fall out so with me. Whereas she might remember,


that they were Romans unto whom
the Apostle so long since

gave this admonition: ^Be


not high-minded, but fear : for
if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he
also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and
severity of God on them which
fell, severity ; but towards
:

thou continue in his goodness: otherwise


thee, goodness, if
THOU ALSO SHALT BE CUT OFF.
The Romans therefore by their pride may get a fall
as well as others ; and the Church of Rome by infidelity
may be cut off as well as any other congregation ; and yet

?fi
Gal. iv. 26. " Rev. xviii. 7. 38
Rom. xi. 2022.
698 A SERMON PREACHED

the Catholic Church subsist for all that, as having for her
foundation neither Rome
Rome's Bishop, but Jesus
nor
Christ, the Son of the living God. And yet this proud
dame and her daughters, the particular Church of Rome
I mean, and that which
they call the Catholic-Roman, or
the faction rather that prevaileth in them both, have in
these latter ages confined the whole Church of Christ
within themselves, and excluded all others that were under
the Roman obedience, as aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise. The
Donatists were cried out against
by our forefathers
for

shutting up the Church within the parts of the south, and


rejecting all others that held not correspondency with that

patch of theirs and could they think well then of


: them
that should conclude the Church within the western parts
of the world, and exclude all other Christians from the

body of Christ that held by the same root there that they
did? It is a strange thing to me, that wise men should
make such large discourses of the Catholic Church, and
bring many testimonies to prove the universality of it,
so
and not discern, that while by this means they think they
have gotten a great victory over us, they have in very truth
overthrown themselves; for when it cometh to the point,
instead of the Catholic Church, which consisteth of the
communion of all nations, they obtrude their own piece unto
us, circumscribing theChurch of Christ within the pre-
cincts of the Romish
jurisdiction, and leaving all the world
beside to the power of Satan ; for with them it is a resolved
case, that " 39 toevery creature it is of altogether necessity
to salvation to be subject to the Bishop." Roman
What must, then, become of the poor Muscovites and
Grecians, to say nothing of the reformed churches in Eu-
rope ? What of the Egyptian and Ethiopian churches in
Afric what of the great companies of Christians scattered
?

over Asia, even from Constantinople unto the East


all

Indies, which have and still do endure more afflictions


and pressures for the name of Christ, than they have ever
done that would be accounted the only friends of Christ?

39
Subesse Romano Pontifici omni hu- necessitate salutis. Bonifa. viii. in ex-
manae creaturae declaramus, dicimus, defi- travag. De majoritate et obedientia, cap.
nimus, et pronunciamus omnino esse de Unam sanctum.
I? E FORE JUS MAJESTY. 699

Must these, because they are not the Pope's subjects, be


therefore denied to be Chrises subjects? Because they are
not under the obedience of the Roman Church, do they
thereupon which they claim in the Catholic
forfeit the estate

Church, out of which there is no salvation ? Must we give


all these for gone, and conclude that they are certainly
damned? They who talk so much of the Catholic Church,
but indeed stand for their own particular, must of force
sink as low in uncharitableness as they have thrust them-
selves deep in schism : we who talk less of the universality
of the Church, but hold the truth of it, cannot find in our
hearts to pass such a bloody sentence upon so many poor
souls that have given their names to Christ. He whose plea-
sure it was to spread the Church's seed so far, said to east,
west, north, and south, Give; it is not for us, then, to say,
Keep back. He
hath given to his Son the heathen for his
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his

possession: we for our parts dare not abridge this grant,


and limit this great lordship, as we conceive it may best
fit our own turns ; but leave it to its own latitude, and seek

for the Catholic Church neither in this part, nor in that

piece, but, as it hath been before said in the words of the


M all that in every place call the name
Apostle, among upon
of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.
Yea, but how can this be, will some say, seeing the
Catholic Church is but one; and the principal reason for
which it is accounted one is 41 the " unity of the faith" pro-
fessed therein how then can this unity of faith be preserved
:

in all places, if one special church be not set as a mistress


over all the rest, and one chief Bishop appointed for a master
over all others, by whom in matters of faith every one must
be ruled ? And out of such different professions as are to
be found among the divided Christians in those several parts
of the world, how can there be fit matter drawn for the

making up of one universal church ? To this I answer,


and so pass from the matter of the building to the structure,
that it is most true indeed that in the Church there is

w Cor. 2. rum Commentariorum auctor) in Psalm,


1 i.

41
Ecclesia ex pluribus personis con- xxiii.
42
gregatur ; et tamen una dicitur propter Ephes. iv. b.

unitatem fidei. Hieron. (si modo is ho-


7oo A SERMON PREACHED

Lord, one faith, one baptism ; for so we are taught by the


Apostle in this chapter but yet, in the Jirst place, it is
:

to be considered, that this unity


of faith must be com-
passed by such means as God hath ordained for the pro-
curing of it, and not by any politic tricks of man's devising.
Now, for the bringing of all to this " unity of the faith,"
the Apostle here telleth us that Christ 43 gave some apostles,
and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors
and teachers. If he had taught that the maintenance of
this unity did depend upon the singularity of any one apostle,
or pastor, or teacher, is it to be imagined that he would
have overslipped such a singular person, even in that very
place where, of others, his presence was most requisite,
all

and run altogether, as he doth, upon the plural num-


ber?
That the multitude of teachers dispersed over the world,
without any such dependency or correspondency, should agree
together in laying the foundations of the same faith, is a
special work of God's Spirit. And it is ^the unity of the
Spirit which the Apostle here speaketh of, and exhorteth
us to keep in the bond of peace. Whereas the unity of
which our adversaries boast so much (which is nothing else
but a wilful suffering of themselves to be led blindfold by
one man, who commonly is more blind than many of them-
selves) is no fruit of the Spirit, but of mere carnal policy ;

and may serve peradventure for a bond of peace betwixt


themselves and their own party, such as 45 the priests of
antichrist were to have, and as many as would be content
to yield themselves to the conduct of such a commander,
but hath proved the greatest block that ever stood in the
way for giving impediment to the peace and unity of the
universal Church, which here we look after. And therefore
Nilus, Archbishop of Thessalonica, entering into the con-
sideration of the original ground of that long-continued
schism, whereby the West standeth as yet divided from the
East, and the Latin churches from the Greek, wrote a
whole book purposely on this argument, wherein he sheweth,

13
Ephes. iv. 11. "Ibid. 3. Episcopos, sed ut antichristi sacerdote
45
Pace sua, id est, impietatis suae imi- Hilar. contr. Auxentium.
tate se jactant ; agentes se non ut Christi
HE FORK HIS MAJKM'V. 701

" I6
thatis no other cause to be assigned of this dis-
there
traction, but that the Pope will not permit the cognizance
of the controversy unto a general council, but will needs
sit himself as the alone teacher of the point in question,
and have others hearken unto him as if they were hi>
scholars; and that this is contrary both to the ordinances
and the practice of the Apostles and the Fathers." Neither
indeed is there any hope that ever we shall see a general
peace for matters of religion settled in the Christian world,
as long as this supercilious master shall be suffered to

keep this rule how much soever he be


in God's house,
magnified by disciples, and
his own
made the only foun-
dation upon which the unity of the Catholic Church de-

pendeth.
the next place, for the further opening of the
Now, in

unity of faith, we are to call unto mind the distinction


which the Apostle maketh betwixt *~the foundation and
48
that which is builded thereupon, betwixt the principles
of the doctrine of Christ and that which he calleth perfection.
The unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son
of God here spoken of hath reference, as we heard, to the
foundation ; as that which followeth, of a perfect man, and
the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, to the

superstruction and perfection. In the former there is a


general unity among all true believers ; in the latter a great
deal of variety there being several degrees of perfection
,

49
to be found in several persons, "according to the measure
of the gift of Christ. So we see in a material building
that still there is but one foundation, though great disparity
be observed in sundry parts of the superstruction some ;

rooms are high, some low, some dark, some lightsome, some
more substantially, some more slightly builded, and in tract
of time some prove more ruinous than others yet all of ;

them belong to one building, as long as they hold together

48
Aoyos aTTo6*ei/ci/us firj a\\o TI rd TT;S <r0ai, Tois
oiaerrao-ecos T^S AaTivcov e/c/c\Tj<rtas Kal uTra/couoi/Tas f-^civ Kal ori TO TOIOVTOV
rifjiiav pexpt TOV irapovTWi aiTiov ell/at, t; d\\OTplOV TtUV dirOOTO\lKti)V Kttl TTCLTpl-
TO /uj /3ou\e<r0aj TOJ/ naVov ol/cou/zei/t/cw Ktav vofjiwv Kal Trpdfceiov.
47
(ruvo^to Tjji/Tou didyvw-
d[j.(t>i<r(3tiTov/j.evov 1 Cor. iii. 1012.
48
d\\' O.VTOV ftovov SiSd-
<TLV eTTiTpeij/ai, Heb. vi. 1.

crKaXov eQeXeiv TOV 49


Ephes. iv. 7.
702 A SERMON PREACHED

and stand upon the same foundation. And even thus is it

in the spiritual
building also, whether we respect the prac-
tical part of or the intellectual.
Christianity
In the practical we see wonderful great difference betwixt
Christian and Christian: some by God's mercy attain to a

higher measure of perfection, and keep themselves unspotted


from the common corruptions of the world; others watch
not so carefully over their ways, and lead not such strict
lives, but are oftentimes overtaken and fall foully ; that he
who looketh upon the one and the other would hardly
think that one heaven should receive them both. But
although the one doth so far outstrip the other in the prac-
tice of new obedience, which is the Christian man's race,

yet are there certain fundamental principles in which they


both concur, as 50 a desire to fear God's name, 51 repentance
for sins past, and a sincere 52 purpose of heart for the time
to come to cleave unto the LORD ; which whosoever hath
is under
mercy, and may not be excluded from the commu-
nion of saints. In like manner for the intellectual part:
53
the Jtrst principles of the oracles of God, as the Apostle
calleth them, hold the place of the common foundation,
in which allmust be grounded; although 54 some
Christians
be babes, and for further knowledge are unskilful in the
word of righteousness; other some are of perfect age, who
by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both

good and evil.

The oracles of God contain abundance of matter in


them, and whatsoever is found in them is a fit object for faith
to apprehend ; but that all Christians should uniformly agree
in the profession of those truths that are revealed there,
is a thing that rather may be wished than ever hoped for.
Yet the variety of men's judgments in those many points
that belong to theological faith, doth not dissolve the unity
which they hold together in the fundamental principles of
the Catholic faith. The unity of faith commended here
is a Catholic unity, and such as every Christian attaineth
unto. Till we ALL come in the unity of faith, saith the

Apostle. As there is a 55 common salvation, so is there a

50 52 53
Neh. i. 11. Acts xi. 23. Heb. v. 12.
51 54 55
Lukexiii. 3, 5; Heb. vi. 1. Ibid. v. 13, 14. Jude 3.
RKFUKK KIS MAJESTY. 703

common faith, which is '""alike precious in the highest


Apostle and the meanest believer. For we may not think
that heaven was prepared for deep clerks only and there- :

fore, beside that larger measure of knowledge, whereof all


are not capable, there must be " M a rule of faith common
to small and great;" which, as it must consist of few pro-

positions, (for simple men cannot bear away many,) so is


it also
requisite that those articles should be of so much
weight and moment, that they may be sufficient to make
a man wise unto salvation ; that howsoever in other points
learned men may go beyond common Christians, and exceed
one another likewise by many degrees, yet in respect of
these radical truths, which is the necessary and common food
59
of all the children of the Church, there is not an unity

only, but such a kind of equality also, brought in among


all sorts of Christians, as was heretofore
among the congre-
gation of the Israelites in the collection of their manna,
60
where he that gathered much had nothing over, and he
that gathered little had no lack.

If, then, salvation by believing these common principles


may be had, and to salvation none can come that is not
first a member of the Catholic Church of Christ ; it followeth

thereupon, that the unity of the faith generally requisite


for the incorporating of Christians into that blessed society
is not to be extended beyond those common principles :
which may further be made manifest unto us by the con-
tinual practice of the Catholic Church herself in the matri-
culation of her children and the first admittance of them
into her communion ; for when she prepared her Catechu-
meni for baptism, and by that door received them into the

congregation of Christ's flock, we may not think her judg-


ment to have been so weak, that she should omit anything
herein that was essentially necessary for the making of one
be a member of the Church. Now, the profession which she
required of all that were to receive baptism, was, for the
Agenda, or practical part, an abrenunciation of the devil,
the world, and the flesh, with all their sinful works and

141
Tit. i. 4. w 2 Pet. i. 1. ou<rt)s oi/T6 o iroXu irepl
58
Regula fidei, pusillis magnisque elirelv tir\eova<rev, oure o TO 6\iyov Tj\ar
communis. Aug. Epist. LVII. Toj/?}o-e. Irenaeus lib. i.
cap. 3.
59
Mms yap K<U T^S aiiTfj? 60
Exod. xvi. 18.
704 A SERMON PREACHED

lusts and for the Credenda, the things to be believed, an


;

acknowledgment of the Articles of the Creed ; which being


solemnly done, she then baptized them in this faith ; inti-
mating thereby sufficiently, that this was that one faith
commended unto her by the Apostles, as the other that one
61
baptism which was appointed to be the Sacrament of it.
This Creed, though for substance it was the same
everywhere, yet for form was somewhat different, and in
some places received more enlargements than in others. The
Western churches herein applied themselves to the capacities
of the meaner sort more than the Eastern did using in their ;

baptism that shorter form of confession commonly called the


Apostles' Creed, which in the more ancient times was briefer
also than now it is as we may easily perceive by comparing
:

the symbol recited by Marcellus Ancyranus, in the ^pro-


fession of the faith which he delivered to Pope Julius, with
the expositions of the Apostles' Creed written by the Latin
doctors ; wherein the mention of the Father's being maker
of heaven and earth, the Son's death and descending into
hell, and the communion of saints, is wholly omitted. All
which, they were of undoubted verity, yet for
though
brevity's sake seem at first to have been omitted in this
short sum because some of them perhaps were not thought
:

to be altogether so necessary for all men, (which is 63 Suarez's


judgment touching the point of the descent into hell),
and some that were most necessary either thought to be
sufficiently implied in other articles, as that of Christ's
death in those of his crucifixon and burial, or thought to
be sufficiently manifested by the light of reason, as that
of the creation of heaven and earth. For howsoever this,
as it a truth revealed by God's word, becometh an object
is

for faith to apprehend, Heb. xi. 3, yet it is otherwise also

clearly to be understood by the discourse of reason, Rom.


i.20, even as the unity and all the other attributes of the
Godhead likewise are which therefore may be well referred
:

unto those Precognita, or common principles which nature


may possess the mind withal, before the grace enlighteneth
it, and need not necessarily to be inserted into that symbol,

"Sacramentumfidei. Aug.Epist.xxm. y:!


Fr. Suarez. Tom. u. in part. in.
62
Habetur apud Epiphanii in Haeres. Thorn. Disp. iv. HI. sect. 2.

I, XXII.
1IKFOUK HIS MAJKSTY.

which is the
badge and cognizance whereby the believer IN
to be differenced and distinguished from the unbeliever.
The Creed which the Eastern churches used in baptism
was larger than this; being either the same, or very little
different,from that which we commonly call the Nicene
Creed, because the greatest part of it was repeated and con-
firmed in the first general Council held at Nice; where the
first
draught thereof was presented to the Synod by Eusebius,
" M As we have
Bishop of Caesarea, with this preamble :

received from the bishops that were before us, both at our
first
catechizing and when we received baptism ; and as we
have learned from the holy Scriptures; and as we have both
believed and taught, when we entered into the ministry, and
in our bishopric itself; so believing at this present also, we
declare this our faith unto you." To this the Nicene
Fathers added a more clear explication of the Deity of
the Son, against the Arian heresy, wherewith the Church was
then troubled, professing him to be " begotten, not made,"
and to be " of one substance with the Father." The second
general Council, which was assembled fifty-six years after at
Constantinople, approving this confession of the faith, as
" 68 most ancient and
agreeable to baptism," enlarged it
somewhat, in the Article that concerned the Holy Ghost
which at that time was most oppugned by the
especially,
Macedonian heretics. And whereas the Nicene confession
proceeded no further than to the belief which we have
in the holy Trinity, the Fathers of Constantinople made it

up by adding that which was commonly professed touching


the Catholic Church and the privileges thereunto belonging.
66
Epiphanius, repeating this Creed at large, affirmeth it to
have been delivered unto the Church by the Apostles. 67 Cas-
sianus avoucheth as much, where he urgeth this against
Nestorius as the Creed anciently received in the Church

84
KuSuk
irape\d(3ofj,ev irapa. TUJV irpo lib.i.
cap. 8. (al. 5.) et Theodoret. lib. i.

eirHTKOTrwv, Kai kv TJJ irptoTTj Ka-rtj-


i'lfjLu>v cap. 12.
Xn'o'ci, KOI OTC TO \ovTpdv eXafj.ftdvofj.evy 85
re ovtrav Kai aKo\ov-
II/96(r/3vTaTt)i;
Kai KaOuis aVo Ttoi/ Qe'nav ypa<ptov fj.efj.a- 6ov Tto Cone. Constant.
patrriofjiaTi.
6)JKa/ii6i/, Kai Trpeafiwrepiia Kai ev
cos ev TOJ
Epist. apud Theod. lib. v. cap. 9.
avrfj Trj eiriffKoiry eiri(TTevop.ev TC Kai
66
fdtSd(TKOfj.ev, ovTia Kai vuv iriaTevovTes,
Epiphan. in 'AyKvptoT. p. 518, edit.
Graec.
Ttjv iifj.(Tepav TritTTLv i>fjLiv TTpo<Tava<pepo-
Euseb. Epist.apudSocratem, Hist. 07 Jo. Cass. lib. v. Incamat. Verbi.
t*ev.

YY
706 A SERMON PREACHED

of Antioch, from whence he came. The Roman church,


after the of Charles the Great, added the article of
days
the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son unto this

symbol; and the Council of Trent hath now recommended


f>8

it unto us
" as that
principle in which all that profess the
faith of Christ do
necessarily agree, and the firm and ONLY
FOUNDATION against which the gates of hell shall never
prevail."
It is a matter confessed therefore by the Fathers of
Trent themselves, that in the Constantinopolitan Creed,
or in the Roman Creed at the farthest, (which differeth

nothing from the other, but that it hath added Filioque


to the procession of the Holy Ghost, and out of the Nicene
Creed Deum de Deo to the articles that concern the Son,)
that only foundation and principle of faith is to be found
in the unity whereof all Christians must
necessarily agree :

which is otherwise cleared sufficiently by the constant


practice of the Apostles and their successors in the first
receiving of men into the society of the 'Church. For in
one of the Apostles' ordinary sermons we see there was
so much matter delivered, as was sufficient to convert men
unto the faith, and to make them capable of baptism and ;

those sermons treated only of the first principles of the


doctrine of Christ; upon the receiving whereof the Church,

following the example of the Apostles, never did deny bap-


tism unto her Catechumeni. In these first principles there-
fore must the foundation be contained, and that common
unity of faith which is required in all the members of the
Church.
The foundation then being thus cleared, concerning
the superstruction we learn from the Apostle, that some
69
build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay, stubble. Some proceed from one degree of
wholesome knowledge unto another, increasing their main
stock by the addition of those other sacred truths that are
revealed in the word of God and these build upon the
;

68 firmum
Concil. Trident. (Sess. 3.) Symbo- et unicum, contra quod portae in-
lum fidei, quo sancta Romana Ecclesia feri nunquam praevalebunt, totidem ver-
utitur, tanquam principium illud in quo bis, quibus in omnibus ecclesiis legitur,

omnes qui fidem Christi profitentur ne- exprimendum esse censuit.


69 Cor.
cessario conveniunt, ac fundamentum 1 iii. 12.
BEFORE II I - MAJESTY.

foundation and precious stones.


gold and silver Others
retain the
precious foundation, but lay base matter upon
it, wood, hay, stubble, and such other either unprofitable
or more dangerous stuff; and others go so far that they
overthrow the very foundation itself. The first of these
be wise, the second foolish, the third mad builders. When
?
the day of trial cometh, the first man s work shall abide,
and he himself shall receive a reward; the second shall
lose his work, but not himself; (~ he shall suffer loss, saith l

the Apostle, but he himself shall be saved ;) the third shall


lose both himself and his work together. And as in this
spiritual structure very different kinds of materials may be
laid upon the same foundation, some sound and some
unsound, so in either of them there is a great difference
to be made betwixt such as are more contiguous to the
foundation and such as be remoter off. The fuller explica-
tion of the first principles of faith, and the conclusions
deduced from thence, are in the rank of those verities that
be more nearly conjoined to the foundation to which those ;

falsities are answerable on the other side, that grate upon

the foundation and any way endanger it.


For that there be divers degrees both of truths and
errors in religion, which necessarily must be distinguished,
is a
thing acknowledged not by us alone, but by the learnedest
also of our adversaries. " 72 There be some Catholic 11
verities,
" which do so
say they, pertain to faith, that these being
taken away, the faith itself must be taken away also. And
these by common use we call not only Catholic, but verities
of faith also. There are other verities which be Catholic
also and universal, namely, such as the whole Church
holdeth, which yet being overthrown, the faith is shaken
indeed, but not overturned. And in the errors that are

contrary to such truths as these the faith is obscured,


not extinguished; weakened, not perished." Nevertheless,

70 71
1 Cor. iii. 14. Ibid. ver. 15. (
tenet, quibus licet eversis fides quatitur,
72
Quaedam suntCatholicae veritates, sed non evertitur tamen. Atque in hu-
quae ita ad fidem pertinent, ut his sub- jusmodi veritatum contrariis erroribus
latis fides
quoque ipsa tollatur quas : dixi fidem obscurari, non extingui ; infir-
nos usu frequenti non solum Catholicas, mari,, non perire. Has ergo uunquam
sed fidei veritates appellavimus. Alias ve- fidei veritates censui vocandas, quamvis
ritates sunt etiam ipsaj Catholics et uni- doctrinae Christiana: veritates sint. Mekh.
versales, nempe quas universa ecclesia ('anus Loc. Theolog. lib. xii. cap 11.

YY2
708 A SERMON PREACHED

" "
3
be not altogether destroyed by them,
though the faith

yet is it evil at ease and shaken, and as it were disposed to

corruption. For as there be certain hurts of the body which


do not take away the life, but yet a man is the worse for
them, and disposed to corruption either in whole or in part ;

as there be other mortal hurts which take away the life ;

so likewise are there certaindegrees of propositions which


contain unsound doctrine, although they have not manifest
1'

heresy. In a word, the general rule concerning all these


superstructions is, that the more near they are to the foun-
dation, of so much greater importance be the truths, and
so much more perilous be the errors; as again, the farther

they are removed off, the less necessary doth the knowledge
of such verities prove to be, and the swerving from the
truth less dangerous.
Now, from
all that hath been said two
great questions
may be resolved which trouble many. The first is, What
we may judge of our forefathers who lived in the communion
of the Church of Rome ? Whereunto I answer, that we
have no reason to think otherwise, but that they lived and
died under the mercy of God. For we must distinguish
the papacy from the Church wherein it is, as the Apostle
doth 74 antichrist from the temple of God wherein he sitteth.
The foundation upon which the Church standeth is that
common faith, as we have heard, in the unity whereof all
Christians do generally accord. Upon this new foundation
antichrist raiseth up his new buildings, and layeth upon
it not hay and stubble only, but far more vile and per-
nicious matter, which wrencheth and disturbeth the very
foundation itself. For example It is a ground of the :

Catholic faith, that " Christ was born of the Virgin Mary ;"
75
which in Scripture is thus explained God sent forth his :

Son, made of a woman. This the papacy admitteth for


a certain truth, but insinuateth withal, that upon the altar

78 Necessario vero sunt laesiones mortales,


oportet distinguere alios parte ; aliae

gradus propositionum, per quas etiamsi quas vitam eripiunt; ita sunt quidam

fides non destruatur omnino, tameu male gradus propositionum, continentes doctri-
habet, et quatitur, et quasi disponitur ad nam non sanam, etiamsi non habeant

corruptionem. Sicut sunt quaedam cor- haeresim manifestam. Dominic. Bannes.


porum laesiones qua? non auferunt vitam, in 2am 2ae, Quaest. xi. Artie. 2.
?4
sed male habet homo
per eas, et disponi- 2 Thes. ii. 4.

tur ad corruptionem aut in toto aut in 75 Gal. iv. 4.


BEFORE HIS MAJESTY. 709

God Son made of bread


sendeth forth his for the tran- :

substantiation men would have us believe, is


which these
not an annihilation of the bread, and a substitution of the
body of Christ in the stead thereof, but a real conversion
of the one into the other; such as they themselves would
have esteemed to be a bringing forth of Christ, and a kind of
generation of him. For, to omit the wild conceits of Postellus
in his book de Nativitate Mediatoris ultima, this is the doc-
trine of their " 1'
as Cornelius a Lapide the
graver divines,
Jesuit doth acknowledge in his Roman Lectures, that " by
76

the words of consecration truly and really as the bread is


transubstantiated, so Christ is produced and (as it were) gene-
rated upon the altar, in such a powerful and effectual manner,
that if Christ as yet had not been incarnate, by these words,
Hoc est corpus meum, he should be incarnated, and assume
an human body." And doth not this new divinity, think
you, shrewdly threaten the ancient foundation of the Catholic
belief of the incarnation ?
Yet such as in the days of our forefathers opposed the

Popish doctrine of transubstantiation, could allege for them-


selves,
7T
that the faith which they maintained was then " pre-
served among the laity, and so had anciently been preserved."
And own knowledge I can testify, that when I have
of mine
dealt withsome of the common people that would be accounted
members of the Roman Church, and demanded of them what
they thought of that which I knew to be the common tenet of
their doctors in thispoint, they not only rejected it with

indignation, but wondered also that I should imagine any of


their side to be so foolish as to give credit to such a senseless

thing. Neither may we account it to have been a small bless-


ing of God unto our ancestors who lived in that kingdom of
darkness, that the ignorance wherein they were bred freed
them from the understanding of those things, which being
1
known might prove so prejudicial to their souls health.

76
Per verba consecrationis vere et rea- nelii a Lapide Comment, in Esai. vii.

transubstantiatur panis, ita pro-


liter uti 14.
ducitur et quasi generator Christus in 77 Confitentur fides sua,
alii, quod qua
altari adeo potenter et efficaciter, ut si astruunt quod panis et vinum remanent
t'hristus necduni esset incarnatus, per post consecrationem in naturis suis, adhuc
hac verba, Hoc est corpus meum, in- servatur laicis, et antiquitus servabatur.
rarnaretur, corpusque humanum assu- Jo. Tissington, in Confessione contr. Jo.
nieret ; ut graves thcologi docent. for- \VirlifT, quam MS. habeo.
710 A SERMON PREACHED

" 78 For there be some


things which it is better for a man to
be ignorant of than to know;" and the 79 not knowing of those
profundities, which are indeed the depths of Satan, is, to
those that have not the skill to dive into the bottom of such

mysteries of iniquity, a good and an happy ignorance.


The ignorance of those principles of the Catholic Faith
that are absolutely necessary to salvation, is as dangerous
a gulf on the other side ; but the light of those common
truths of Christianity was so great and so firmly fixed in
the minds of those that professed the name of Christ, that
it was not possible for the power of darkness to extinguish
it,nor the gates of hell to prevail against it. Nay, the very
solemn days, which by the ancient institution of the Church
were celebrated for the commemoration of the Blessed Tri-
nity, the Nativity, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of
our Saviour Christ, did so preserve the memory of these
80
things among the common people, that by the Popish doc-
tors themselves it is made an argument of gross* and supine
ignorance, that any should not have explicate knowledge
of those mysteries of Christ which were thus publicly
solemnized in the Church. And, which is the principal
point of all, the ordinary instruction appointed to be given
81
unto men upon their death-beds, was, that they should
look " to come to glory, not by their own merits, but by
the virtue and merit of the passion of our Lord Jesus
Christ ;'' thatthey should "place their whole confidence
in his death only, and in no other thing;" and that they
should " interpose his death between God and their sins,
betwixt them and God's anger."
So that where these things did thus concurin any, as
we doubt not but they did many thousands, the know-
in

ledge of the common principles of the faith, the ignorance


of such main errors as did endanger the foundation, a godly
life, and a faithful death; there we have no cause to make
any question, but that God hath a subject for his
fitted

mercy to work upon. And yet in saying thus we do nothing

78 Sunt enim quaedam, quae nescire, i sect. 6. ex Thorn, in 2a 2se, Quaest. n.


quam scire, sit melius. Aug. Enchirid. Art. 7.
ad Laurent, cap. 17.
81
See my Treatise De Christianarum
Rev. ii. 24. Ecclesiarum successione et statu, cap. 7->
80
Sylvest. iu Summa, verb. -Fides. \
sect. 21, 22,
Ills MAJK6TV.

less than say, that such as these were Papists either in tluii
life or in their death members of the Roman Church
:

perhaps they were, but such as by GooVs goodness were


preserved from the mortality of Popery that reigned there-:
for Popery itself is nothing else but the botch or the

plague of that church, which hazardeth the souls of those


it seizeth
upon, as much as any infection can do the body.
And therefore, if any one will needs be so fool-hardy as
to take
up his lodging in such a pesthouse, after warning
given of the we in our charity may well
present danger,
"
say, Lord, have mercy upon him ;" but he, in the mean
time, hath great cause to fear, that God in his justice will
inflictthat judgment upon him which ^in this case he hath
threatened against such as will not believe the truth, but
take pleasure in unrighteousness. And so much may
suffice for that question.
The rife in the mouths of our adver-
second question so
saries " Where
was your Church before Luther?"
is,

Whereunto an answer may be returned from the grounds


of the solution of the former question, that our Church
was even there where now it is. In all places of the world
where the ancient foundations were retained, and these com-
mon principles of faith, upon the profession whereof men
have ever been wont to be admitted by baptism into the
Church of Christ, there we doubt not but our Lord had
his subjects, and we our fellow-servants for we bring :

in no new faith nor no new Church. That which in the


time of the ancient Fathers 83 was accounted to be " truly
and properly Catholic," namely, " that which was believed
every where, always, and by all," that in the succeeding
ages hath evermore been preserved, and is at this day entirely
professed in our Church. And it is well observed by a
learned man, who hath written a full discourse of this argu-
that " 84
whatsoever the Father of lies either hath
ment,

112
2 Thess. ii. 12. rus sit mendacii pater, non tarn en vel
ra
In ipsa Catholica ecclesia magno- effecisse hactenus vel eftecturum posthac,
pere curandum est, ut id teneamus quod ut haec doctrina Catholica, omnium Chris-

ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus tianorum consensu semper et ubique rata,
creditum est; hoc est etenim vere pro- aboleatur; quin potius illam in densis-
prieque Catholicum. Vincent. Lirin. sima maxime involutarum perturbatio-
cont. Haercs. cap. \\. num caligine victricem exstitisse, et irt
:;1
Quicquid vel molitus sit vel molitu- animis et in apcrta confessione Christi-
712 A SERMON PREACHED

attempted or shall attempt, yet neither hath he hitherto


effected, nor shall ever bring it to pass hereafter, that this
Catholic doctrine, ratified by the common consent of Chris-
tians always and every where, should be abolished ; but
that in the thickest mist rather of the most perplexed troubles
it still obtained victory, both in the minds and in the open
confession of all Christians, no ways overturned in the foun-

dation thereof; and that in verity that one Church


this
of Christ was preserved in midst of the tempests of
the
the most cruel winter, or in the thickest darkness of her

wanings."
Thus, if at this day we should take a survey of the
several professions of Christianity that have any large spread
in any part of the world, as of the religion of the Roman
and the Reformed churches in our quarters, of the Egyp-
tians and Ethiopians in the south, of the Grecians and
other Christians in the eastern parts, and should put by the

points wherein they did differ one from another, and gather
into one body the rest of the articles wherein they all
did generally agree; we should find, that in those propo-
sitions which without all controversy are universally received
in the whole Christian world, so much truth is contained

as, being joined with holy obedience, may be sufficient to

bring a man unto everlasting salvation. Neither have we


cause to doubt, but that * 5 as many as do walk according
to this rule, (neither overthrowing that which they have
builded by superinducing any damnable heresies thereupon,
nor otherwise vitiating their holy faith with a lewd and
wicked conversation,) peace shall be upon them, and mercy,
and upon the Israel of GOD.
Now these common principles of the Christian faith,
which we call KoivoTrtcrTa, or things generally believed of
all, as they have and " antiquity," and
" 86
universality"*
" consent"
concurring with them, which by Vincentius's
rule are the special characters of that which is truly and

anorum omnium, in suis fundamentis in Apparat. ad Fidem Cathol. edit. Paris,

nullo modo labefactatam. In ilia quoque ann. 1607, p. 172.


85
veritate unam illam ecclesiam fuisse con- Gal. vi. 16.
B6
servatam in mediis saevissinue hyemis Universitatem, antiquitatem, coneen-
tempestatibus, vel densissimis tenebris sionem. Vincent. Lirin. cont. Haeres.
suorum interluniorum. Job. Serranus, cap. 3.
BEFORE HIS* MAJESTY. 713

properly Catholic ; so for their duration we are sure that


they have still held out, and been kept as the seminary
of the Catholic Church in the darkest and difficultest
times that have been everwhere if the Lord of hosts :

had not in mercy reserved this seed unto us, we should


his

long since *~have been as Sodom, and should have been


like unto Gomorrah. It cannot be denied indeed, that
Satan and his instruments have used their utmost endeavour
either to hide this light from men's eyes by keeping them
in gross
ignorance, or to deprave it by bringing in pernicious
heresies ; and that in these latter ages they have much
prevailed both ways, as well in the West and North as
in the East and South. Yet far be it, for all this, from
s8
any man to think that God should so cast away his

people, that in those times there should not be left a rem-


nant according to the election of grace.
The Christian Church was never brought unto a lower
ebb than was the synagogue in the days of our
Jewish
89
Saviour Christ,interpreters of the law had
when the
taken away the key of knowledge; and that little know-
ledge that remained was miserably corrupted, not only
with the leaven of the Pharisees, but also with the dam-
nable heresy of the Sadducees. And yet a man at that
time might have seen the true servants of GOD standing
together with these men in the selfsame temple ; which
might well be accounted, as the house of the saints in regard
of the one, so a den of thieves in respect of the other.
When the pestilent heresy of the Arians had polluted the
whole world, the people of Christ were not to be found
among them only who made an open secession from that
wicked company, but among those also who held external
communion with them, and lived under their ministry ;

where they so learned the other truths of GOD from them,


that they were yet ignorant of their main error; God in
his providence so ordering matters, that, as it is noted by
w St " the
Hilary, people of Christ should not perish under
tin-
priests of antichrist."

"7 nR
Isaiah i. 0. Rom. xi. 2, 5.
jam sub antichrist! sacerdotibus Christi
n!>
Luke xi. 52.
populus non occidat. Hilar. cent. Aux-
00
Et hujus quiclcm usque aclhuc im- entium.
pietatis occasio per fraudem perficitur, ut
714 A SERMON PREACHED

If you demand, then, Where was God's temple all this


while ? the answer is at hand There where antichrist sate. :

Where was Christ's people ? even under antichrist's priests :

and yet no justification at all either of antichrist or


this is

of his priests, but a manifestation of God's great power,


who is able to uphold his Church even there 91 where Satan's
throne is. Babylon was an infectious place, and the infec-
tion thereof was mortal; and
yet God had his people there,
whom he preserved from the mortality of that infection.
Else how should he have said, ^ 2 Come out of her, my people,
that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive
not of her plagues? If the place had not been infectious,
he should not have needed to forewarn them of the danger
wherein they stood of partaking in her sins ; and if the
infection had not been mortal, he would not have put them
in mind of the plagues that were to follow and if in the ;

place thus mortally infected God had not preserved a people


alive unto himself, he could not have said, Come out of her,
my people.
93
The enemy indeed had there sown his tares, but sown
them in the LORD'S field, and among the LORD'S wheat :

and a field, we know, may so be 94 overgrown with such


evil weeds as these, that at the sight a man
first would
hardly think that any corn were there at all; even as in
the barn itself the 95 mixture of the chaff with the wheat
is sometime such, as afar off a man would
imagine that he
did see but a heap of chaff, and nothing else. Those
worthy husbandmen, that in these last 600 years have taken
pains in plucking up those pernicious weeds out of the
LORD'S field, and severing the chaff from his grain, cannot
be rightly said, in doing this, either to have brought in
another field, or to have changed the ancient grain. The
field is the same, but weeded now, unweeded then; the

grain the same, but winnowed now, unwinnowed then. We

91 92 Et quicunque longius attendit aream,


Rev. ii. 13. Rev. xviii. 4.
93
Matth. xiii. 24, 25. paleam solummodo putat; nisi diligen-
94
Infelix lolium, et steriles dominan- tius intueatur, nisi manum porrigat, nisi
tur avenge. spiritu oris, id est, flatu
purgante dis-
n5
Grana cum cceperint triturari inter cernat; difficile pervenit ad discretionem
paleam, se non jam tangunt, et quasinon granorum. Serm. ccxxi. de Tempore,
se noverunt, quia intercedit medio palea. Tomo x. Opcr. August.
BEFORE HIS MAJESTY. 715

preach no new faith, but the same Catholic faith that ever
hath been preached ; neither was it any part of our meaning
to begin a new Church in these latter days of the world,
but to reform the old. A tree that hath the luxurious
branches lopped off, and the noxious things that cleave
unto it taken away, is not by this pruning and purging
of made another tree than it was before neither is
it : the
Church reformed in our days another Church than that
which was deformed in the days of our forefathers ; though
it hath no agreement for all that with Popery, which is
the pestilence that walked in those times of darkness, and
the destruction that now wasteth at noonday.
And thus have I finished that which I had to speak
concerning the unity of the faith ; for the further explica-
tion whereof the Apostle addeth, and of the knowledge of
the Son of God. Wherein we may observe both the nature
of this grace, and the object of it. For the former, we
see that faith is here described unto us
by knowledge, to
shew unto us that knowledge is that
thing that is necessarily
required true in
believing; whereof this may be an argu-
ment sufficient, that in matters of faith the Scripture doth
use indifferently the terms of knowing and believing. So
Job xix. 25, / know that my Redeemer liveth ; John xvii. 3,
This eternal, that they know thee the only true God,
is life

and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent; Isaiah Liii. 11, By
his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.
As, therefore, in the fundamental truths of Christian religion,
unity of the faith is required among all those that belong
to the Catholic Church, so in those main grounds likewise
there is unity of knowledge generally required among all

that profess the name of Christ.


For some things there be, the knowledge whereof is

absolutely necessary, necessitate medii vel jinis, as the

96 non excusa-
Necessarium necessitate medii ap- bis etiam sine culpa nostra,

pellant theologi illud, quod ex lege ordi- bunt nos ab asterna morte ; quamvis non
naria Dei sic ad salutem necessarium est, fuerit in nostra potestate ilia assequi.
ut quicunque etiam ob ignorantiam in- Quamadmodum etiam si non sit nisiuni-
vincibilem vel quacunque alia de causa cum remedium, ut aliquis fugiat mortem
id non fuerit assecutus, isnequeat etiam corporalem, et tale remedium ignoretur
consequi salutem. Greg, de Valentia, et ab intirmo et medico, sine dubio peri-
Tom. in. Commentar. Theolog. Quaest. bit homo ille. Dom. Bannes, in 2am
u. Punct. 2, col. 299. Tlla qua? sunt 2ae, Qu;pst. ii. Art. 8, col. 348.
ncccssaria necessitate finis, si desint no-
716 A SERMON PREACHED

schoolmen speak, without which no man may expect, by


God's ordinary law, to attain unto the end of his faith,
the salvation of his soul. And in these a man may lose

himself, not by heresy only, which is a flat denying, but


by ignorance also, which is a bare not knowing of them ;
these things being acknowledged to be so necessary, that

although it lay not in our power to attain thereunto, yet


this invincible ignorance should not excuse us from ever-

lasting death. Even as if there were one only remedy


whereby a sick man could be recovered and freed from
corporal death suppose the patient and the physician both
:

were ignorant of it, the man must perish, as well not


knowing it, as if, being brought unto him, he had refused
it. And therefore in this case it is resolved, that 9r from
the explicit faith and actual knowledge of these things no-

thing can excuse but only such an incapacity as is found


in infants, naturals, and distracted persons ; and that in all
others which have the use of reason, although they want
the means of instruction, this ignorance is not only perilous,
but also damnable.
The danger, then, of this ignorance being, by the confes-
sion of the most judicious divines of both sides, acknowledged
to be so great, the woeful estate of the poor country wherein
I live is much to be lamented, where the people generally
are suffered to perish for want of knowledge; the vulgar
superstitions of Popery not doing them half that hurt that
the ignorance of those common principles of the faith doth,
which all true bound to learn. The con-
Christians are
sideration whereof hath sometime drawn me to treat with
those of the opposite party, and to move them, that how-
soever in other things we did differ one from another, yet
we should join .together in teaching those main points, the
knowledge whereof was so necessary unto salvation, and
of the truth whereof there was no controversy betwixt us.
But what for the jealousies which these distractions in
matters of religion have bred among us, and what for other
97 Sicut ad legis Christi habitualem rali impossibilitate prohibitos, incapaces
fidem omnis viator obligatur sine ulla voco, etsi non simpliciter tamen secundum
exceptione ; sic ab ejus actaali fide nullus quid; scilicet dum his defectibus labo-
excusatur, nisi sola incapacitate, &c. rant. Petr. de Alliaco in qujestione Ves-
Parvulos autem et luriosos, ceterisque periarum.
passionibus mente captos, seu alia natu-
BEFORE HIS MAJESTY.

respects, the motion took small effect ; and so betwixt u*


both the poor people are kept still in miserable ignorance,
neither knowing the grounds of the one religion nor of
the other.
Here the case, God be thanked, is far otherwise, where
your MAJESTY'S care can never be sufficiently commended,
in taking order that the chief heads of the catechism should,
be diligently propounded and ex-
in the
ordinary ministry,
plained unto the people throughout the land which I wish :

were as duly executed every where, as it was piously by


you intended. Great scholars, possibly, may think that it
standeth not so well with their credit to stoop thus low,
and to spend so much of their time in teaching these
rudiments and first principles of the doctrine of Christ.
But they should consider, that the laying of the founda-
tion skilfully, as it is the matter of greatest importance in
the whole building, so is it the very masterpiece of the
wisest builder. ^According to the grace of God which is
given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the
foundation, saith the great Apostle. And let the learnedest
of us all try it whenever we please, we shall find that to
lay this groundwork rightly, that is, to apply ourselves unto
the capacity of the common auditory, and to make an

ignorant man to understand these mysteries in some good


measure, will put us to the trial of our skill, and trouble
us a great deal more than if we were to discuss a controversy,
or handle a point of learning in the schools.
subtil Yet
"Christ did give well his Apostles and
as Prophets and
Evangelists, as his ordinary Pastors and Teachers, to bring
us all, both learned and unlearned, unto the unity of
this faith and knowledge ; and the neglecting of this is
the frustrating of the whole work of the ministry. For
let us preach never so
many sermons unto the people, our
labour is but lost as long as the foundation is unlaid, and
the first principles untaught upon which all other doctrine
must be builded.
He shew himself approved
therefore that will m study to
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
dividing the word of God aright, must have a special care

"8
1 Cor. iii. 10. " Ephes. iv. 11. ">
2 Tim. ii. 15.
718 A SERMON PREACHED

to plant this kingdom both in the minds and in the hearts


of them that hear him. I say, in the hearts as well as
in the minds ; because we may not content ourselves with
a bare theoretical knowledge, which is an information
only of the understanding, and goeth no further than the
brain but we must labour to attain unto a further
;

degree both of experimental and of practical knowledge


in the things that we have learned. A
young man may
talk much of the troubles of the world, and a scholar
in the university may shew a great deal of wit in making
a large declaration upon that argument ; but when the
same men have afterwards been beaten in the world, they
will confess that they spake before they knew not what,
and count their former apprehension of these things to
be but mere ignorance in respect of that new learning
which now they have bought by dear experience. The
tree in paradise, of which our first parents were forbidden
to eat, was called m the tree of knowledge of good and

evil, because it signified unto them, that as now, while


they stood upon terms of obedience with their Creator,
they knew nothing but good, so at what time soever
they did transgress his commandment, they should begin
to know evil also, whereof before they had no knowledge ;
not but that they had an intellectual knowledge of it

before, (for he that knoweth good cannot be ignorant of


that which is
contrary to it, rectum being always index
sui et obliqui ;) but that till then they never had felt

any evil, they never had


any experimental knowledge of
it. So our Apostle in this Epistle boweth his knees unto
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would grant
unto these Ephesians l(2 to know the love of Christ which
passeth knowledge ; shewing that there is a further degree
of knowledge in this kind that may be felt by the heart,

though not comprehended by the brain and in the Epistle :

103
to the Philippians he counteth all things but loss for
the excellent knowledge sake of Christ Jesus his Lord;

meaning hereby a knowledge grounded upon deep expe-


rience of the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection in
his own soul, as he expoundeth it himself in the words

101 102 103


Gen. ii. 9, 17- Ephes. iii. Id, Phil. iii. 8.
11EFORE HIS 719

m
That I may know him, and the power of
following:
his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, and
be made conformable unto his death.
There is an experimental knowledge, then, to be looked
after beside the mental; and so is there a practical know-

ledge likewise, as well as an intellectual. When Christ


is saidhave known no sin, we cannot understand this
to
of intellectual knowledge, (for had he not thus known
sin, he could not have reproved it as he did,) but of prac-
tical. So that lo5 He knew no sin, in St Paul, must be
conceived to be the very same with He did no sin, loc>

l(r
in St Peter. In the first to the Romans, they that 'knew
God, because they glorified him not as God, are there-
fore said
m
not to have God in their knowledge. God
made his ways and his laws known to the children of
109
Israel in the desert; and yet he said of them, // isa
people that do err in their hearts, and they have not
known my ways. For there is an error in the heart
as well as in the brain; and a kind of ignorance arising
from the will as well as from the mind. And therefore
110
in the Hebrews,
Epistle to
all sins are termed
the
in
dyvorjimara, ignorances, and sinners ayvoovvres ical TrXa-
vwnevot, ignorant and erring persons because however ;

in the general the understanding may be informed rightly,


yet when particular actions come to be resolved upon,
men's perverse wills and inordinate affections cloud their
minds and lead them out of the way. That therefore
is to be accounted sound knowledge which sinketh from
the brain into the heart, and from thence breaketh forth
into action, setting head, heart, hand, and all a- work ;

and so much only must thou reckon thyself know to


in Christianity, as thou art able to make use of in prac-
l]2
tice. For, as St James saith of faith, Shew me thy
faith by thy works ; so doth he in manner of know-
like

ledge,
113
Who is a wise man, and endued with know-

104 105 111


Phil. iii. 10. 2 Cor. v. 21. Heb. v. 2. Aristot. Ethic, lib. iii.
106
1 Pet. ii. 22. 107 Rom. i. 21. cap. 1 .
'Ayi/oei fiev ouv Tras o /uo)(0Tj/oos
108 wv
Ibid. ver. 18. a Set TrpaTTeiv, Kal 5tj dfyeKTeov. /cat
109
Psalm xcv. 10; Heb. iii. 10. ota Ttjv TotauTtjf d/aapTtav aftticoi K'at
1111
Heb. ix. 7, compared with Levit. o\a)S KdKoi yivovrai.
112 3
xvi. 16, 17. James ii. 8. James iii. 13.
720 A SERMON PREACHED

ledge amongst you ? let him shew out of a good conver-


sation his works with meekness of wisdom. And St John
much to the same purpose: lu Hereby do we know that
we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that
saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments,
is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

He speaketh there of Jesus Christ the righteous, the


Son of God, who is here in
my text likewise made the
U5
object of this knowledge, Thou art Christ the Son
of the living God, is
by Christ himself made the rock
upon which the whole Church is builded. And 116 other
foundation, saith St Paul, can no man lay, than that
U7
is laid, which is Christ. Not that we should think
that there were no other fundamental doctrine to be
acknowledged but (for the articles of the Holy
this alone,

Ghost, Forgiveness of Sins, Resurrection of the Dead,


eternal Judgment, and such other like, have their place
118
also in foundation,) but because this is the most
the

special object of faith, and the primary foundation of the


other. For, first, as God is made the cosequate object
of the whole body of divinity, notwithstanding it treateth
also of men and angels, heaven and hell, sin and obedience,
and sundry other particulars ; because all these are brought
to God reductively, if not explications of his nature,
as

yet of his works and kingdom ; so likewise may Christ


be made the primary head of other fundamental articles,
because they have all reference unto him, being such
as concern either his Father, or his Spirit, or his incarna-
tion, or his office of mediation, or his Church, or the
which he hath purchased for it.
special benefits
Secondly, howsoever this faith and knowledge, being
taken in their larger extent, have for their full object
whatever is revealed in the word of God ; yet as they
build us upon the foundation, as they incorporate us into
the mystical body, as they are the means of our justi-
fication and life, they look upon the Son of God, and him
only. The holy Scriptures, within the bounds whereof
the utmost extent of all our faith and knowledge must

114 7 Vide Aug.


1 John ii. 3, 4. lib. de Fide et Oper.
115
Matth. xvi. 16, 18. cap. 9.
116 118
1 Cor. iii. 11. Heb. vi. 1, 2.
BKFOKK HIS MAJESTY.

be contained, are able to make us wise unto salvation ,

but yet through faith which is in Christ Jesus, 2 Tim.


iii. 15. So, by his knowledge, or the knowledge of him-
self, shall my righteous servant justify many, saith the
Father of the Son, Isaiah Liii. 11. And, the life which
I now livein the flesh I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me, saith
the Apostle, Gal. ii. 20. The children of Israel in the
wilderness being stung with fiery serpents, were directed,
for their recovery, to look upon the brazen serpent;
which was a figure of U9 the Son of man lifted up upon
the cross, that whosoever did believe in him might not

perish, but have eternal life. Now, as the Israelites with


the same eyes, and with the same visive faculty wherewith

they beheld the sands and the mountains in the desert,


did look upon the brazen serpent also, but were cured

by fastening their sight upon that alone, and not by looking


upon any other object so by the same faith and know-
;

ledge whereby we are justified we understand that the I2(}

world was framed by the word of God, and believe all


other truths revealed; and yetjides qua justificans, " faith
as it doth justify us," doth not look upon these, but fixeth
itself solely upon the Son of God, not knowing anything
here but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And thus hath
our Saviour a special and peculiar place in that larger
foundation ;
according to that of the Apostle, Ephes. ii. 20,
Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
}2l
prophets, of which, (for so his words in the original
may well bear it,) Jesus Christ is the chief corner-stone.
It followeth now that we should proceed from the

foundation to the structure; and so, Cleaving the prin-


ciples of the doctrine of Christ, go on unto perfection,
[unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of
the fulness of Christ]. There is a time wherein Christ
is but
begun, and as it were
a-breeding in us ; Gal. iv. 19,
My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until
Christ be formed in you. After that he hath been formed

11!) 121
John iii. 14, 15. "OVTOS aKpoycavtalov Xttfou avrou
120
Heb. xi. 3. (sc. 6e/ue\iou) 'lijarov XpicrTov.
122
Heb. vi. 1.

z z
722 A SERMON PREACHED

in our hearts, he is. at first but as a babe there, yet resteth


not at that stay ; but as in his natural body he increased
in stature, so in every part of his mystical
body he hath
set for himself a certain measure
of stature, and a fulness
of growth ; which being attained unto, a Christian is

thereby made a perfect man.


end also doth And for this
the Apostle here shew that the ministry was instituted,
m that we
henceforth should be no more children, as it is
in the words
immediately following in my text, but that
we might grow up into him in all things, which is the
head, even Christ. For the perfection which the Apostle
here speaketh of is not to be taken absolutely, as if any
absolute perfection could be found among men in this
life, but in comparison with childhood as the opposition ;

is more
clearly made by him in 1 Cor, xiv. 20, Brethren,
be not children in understanding; howbeit in malice be

ye children, but in understanding be perfect, that is to


say, of man's estate. And Heb. v. 13, 14, Every one that
useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for
he is a babe : but strong meat belongeth to them that
are perfect, that is, that are of full age, as our inter-

preters have rightly rendered it.

Now, as there is great difference among men in their


natural growth, so is there no less variety among them
also in respect of their spiritual stature; there being several

degrees of this imperfect kind of perfection here spoken


of, which, according to the diversity of times, places, and
persons, may admit a greater or a lesser measure. For
we may not think that the same measure of knowledge,
for example, is sufficient for a learned man and an un-
learned; for a pastor, and for an ordinary Christian ; for
those that lived in the time of darkness, and them that

enjoy the light of the Gospel; for them that have the
means, and them that want it but, according to the mea- :

sure of the gift of God, we must know notwithstanding,


that it is required generally of all men that they grow
in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, 2 Pet. iii. 18 not in knowledge only, but
:

in grace ; even I2
*grow up into him in ALL things, which

123
Luke 124 iv. 14,
1W 15,
ii.52, Ephes. If*. Ephes.Jv.
UK FORK ills M. \.M:s TV.

is the head as our Apostle here


9 admonisheth us. We
must proceed from faith to faith, Rom. i. 17, that is, from
one measure and degree of it unto another and this being ;

the root, and other graces as it were the branches, if it

grow apace, other graces also must hasten and ripen and
grow proportionably with it else thou mayest justly
:
suspect
that thy growth is not sound and answerable to that which
the Apostle sheweth to be in the mystical body of Christ ;
126
which, according to the effectual working in the measure
of EVERY part, maketh increase of the body, unto the
edifying of itself in love. The time will not permit me
to proceed any further, and therefore here I end.
l27
Now
the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the
blood of his
everlasting make you perfect in
covenant,
every good work to do his will, working in you that
which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ ;
to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

126 127
Ephes. IT. 16. Heb. xiii. 20, 21.

THE END.

ZZ2
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

ABRAHAM'S bosom, what it means, 239, Aidan, Pope, the worship of angels con-
242, et seqq. demned by, 406.
Absolution, admitted in the Church of Eng- Adrian, his reverence for Scripture, 522 ;
land, 99. That absolute forgiveness of labours for the conversion of the heathen,
sins belongs only to God, formerly al- 618 ;
his character, 614.
lowed Church of Rome, 100, and
in the Alexander III., Bull of that Pope, grant-
taught by the Fathers, 101105. The ing the kingdom of Ireland to Henry II.,
priest's part in absolving, only ministerial, 626.
106, 107, 108 ; one part of this ministry Alfred, King, his knowledge of Scripture,
consists in prayer, or intercession, 109, 523.
110. Its efficacy, 112; ancient forms of, Alypius, story of his being miraculously
112, 113. These forms not indicative but healed, 382.
deprecatory, 113, 114, 115. Early forms Amalarius, the first to propound the doc-
for reconciling penitents, 116. The power trine of the corporal presence, in the
of loosing as well as binding remaineth still West, 67.
in the Church, 117. The absolving power Amphilochius, Bp. of Iconium, speech of
in the sacraments, properly God's, 119 his condemning the use of images, 439.
also in preaching, 120 123 ;
illustrated Angels, worship of, forbidden as idolatry,

by the authority of the Levites, 124. Pe- 406, 672.


culiar authority of reconciliation in the Angeli, fraudulently changed to Auguli,
Christian priesthood, 125, 126; how li- 407.

mited, 128 131. Contrition a necessary Anointing for burial, 295.

condition of it, 132. Equivocation of the Antiquity, its opinions not always to be pre-

Romanists in this subject, 133. The ferred to those of the moderns, 25, 30.

efficacy of the priest's absolution de- Apollo, why called Delius and Pythius,
pends on the conversion of the penitent, 284.
134138. Repentance indispensable to Apostles, their authority universal, 648.
forgiveness, 139. Unconditional absolution Aquisgran, Council of, 162.
first used among heretics, 141 144. In Archbishops, the order existed in Ireland,
what cases penance was anciently relaxed, in early times, 587 ; elected without the

145. Danger incurred by them who concurrence of the Roman


See, 589.
abuse the power of absolution, 146 au- Arians, did not prevent all
their heresy
;

thority of absolute forgiveness not assumed knowledge of necessary truths, 713.


in the Church of Rome a late period,
till Ark of the Covenant, how a type of Christ,
692.
147 150. Absolution, in what sense used
in the ancient Irish Church, 561. Armenian Church, prayers for the dead
in, 181 confession of the Armenians,
Adam, opinion of the Fathers concerning ;

his soul, 254 said to have been raised what it states respecting our Lord's de-
;

at the resurrection of Christ, 308 et seqq. ;


scent into hell, 307.
tradition respecting the place of his bu- Ascension of Christ, shadowed in the re-

rial, 310. moval of the Ark, 691.


Adamantius, freedom of will defined by, Attrition, as taught in the Church of Rome,
447. what it is, 133, 138.
726 INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Austin, the monk, British Bishops refuse knowledge of, the essential foundation,
to submit to, 613. 720.
Church, the, its state at present imperfect,
Baptism, what it signifies, 357. 577, 578 dissensions in, apt to arise
;

Basil, St, said to have freed Cappadocia when at peace externally, 656.
it is

from a famine, 348. Church, of Christ, its incompleteness im-


Becket, story of the Virgin appearing to plies an incompleteness in Christ himself,
to him, 422. 694 each particular Church owes to it
;

Bishops, mode of their election, in early the duty of communion, 695 this duty ;

times, 590, 591. grievously violated by the Romanists,


Bread, Sacramental, what it implies, 661 ;
696 ; arrogant assumption of Catholicity
partaking of it the means of union with by the Church of Rome foreseen, 697 ;

Christ, ibid. its danger to herself, ib.; the true Ca-


Bread and Wine, in the sacrament, how tholicChurch not dependent upon the
they differ from common bread and wine, Church of Rome, 698 uncharitableness;

663 not only significant, but exhibitive,


;
of the contrary assumption, 699 ; unity
of heavenly things, 664. of the faith different from political unity,
British Churches. See Irish Church. 700; admits variety of perfection, 701,
Burial, various kinds of, 276. both in practice and knowledge, 702,
Buxtorf, oversight of his, 275. agreeably to the diversity of judgment
and circumstances, 702, does not insist
Caerleon, Bp. of, acknowledged by the on more than a few credenda and agenda,
British Bishops as their superior, 613. 703; hence the Christian creeds differ,
Canisius, a dishonest commentary of, 407. in particulars in different places, though
Canon ;
falsification of a canon against the substantially the same, 704. The foun-
worship or angels, 507; concerning dation approved by the Church of Rome,
penance, 560. essentially that which is agreed upon
Cardinals, privilege ascribed to, 423. among all Christians, 706 ;
divers degrees
Carthage, Council of, its canon against of truth and error may be built on this

Pelagianism, 456. foundation, 707 ;


hence we are to distin-

Cashel, Council of, order taken by it, for guish the Catholic verities acknowledged
introducing the use of the Roman Catho- in the Church of Rome from its corrup-
lic Liturgy throughout Ireland, 549. tions, 708. Many members of the Romish
Catechumens, what required of them by Church have lived in ignorance of its

the Church, 703, 706. abuses, 709, but none in ignorance of the
Cavaillon, Council of, opinion held there principles necessary to salvation, 710.
respecting confession, 92. Those doctrines which are truly Catholic
Cedd, Bp. severity of his life, 575. have been acknowledged in every Church,
Charlemagne, condemns the use of images, 711713. Errors in a Church do not
443. prevent its communicants from having
Chrism, in baptism, not used by the ancient a knowledge of saving truth, 713. The
Irish, 558. reformed Church still essentially the same

Christ ;
believed by the Fathers to have as when it was corrupt, 714. Unity of
descended into the lowermost hell, 256, knowledge required in the members of
et seqq. (See Hell.) What meant by the Catholic Church, 715 ; knowledge of
his preaching the spirits in prison,
to essential truths necessary to salvation,
264, 265 ; his soul like that of other men, 716. Importance of laying a right foun-
330 ; invocation of saints an encroach- dation, 717, both in experience and the-
ment upon his office of intercessor, 393. ory, 718, 719. Knowledge of Christ the
Christ the true Head of the Church, 582. chief foundation, 720, 721, on which the
His kingdom does not interfere with tem- Christian should be built up to perfec-

poral authority, 631 what he performed ; tion, 722.


at his ascension, 693 truly received in ; Church, Protestant, question, Where it was
the sacrament, 664, but spiritually, 665. before Luther ? answered, 711.
In what sense he knew no sin, 719 ;
Churches ;
different churches mny vary in
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 727

some points, and yet concur in essentials, Cycle, difference between the Alexandrian
21. The KoifoVio-Ta, or things gene- and that of Sulpicius Severus, 600.
rally believed in all churches, sufficient
for salvation, 712. Damascenus, John, founder of school di-

Churches, British, their separation from the vinity in the Greek Church, 65.
Roman See, 612. Deacons, the reconciliation of penitents
Cluny,' monks of, prayed for the reprobate., performed by, in early times, 116.
219. Dead, why not permitted to hold commu-
Collyridians, why so called, 412. nion with the living, 162 whether they ;

Colman, Bp. speech respecting Easter, 608. are acquainted with the concerns of the
Columbanus his reply to the offers of
; living, much controverted in former tiroes,
Sigebert, 569; rule of his monastery, 386.
574. Dead, Prayer for the, had anciently no re-

Commandments, image-worship enjoined lation to belief in purgatory, 168 ;


that it

upon a shameful perversion of, 434. related to those who were gone to their

Communion, received in both kinds by the final rest, shewn from ancient authors,
ancient British, 552, 553. 169, 170, from the primitive liturgies,
Condignity, merit of, asserted by the Romish 170 and from ancient funeral ora-
172,
Church, 475, 476 ; is by some of that com- tions, 172, 173. The same proved from
munity so explained as to agree with us, the practice of later times, 174, 176, and
500. from the design of the ancient forms,
Confession, allowed in the Church of Eng- 177183. Prayers and offices for the

land, 75 ;
to God alone, sufficient, shewn dead referred to the resurrectionand last
from Scripture, 76; from the Fathers, judgment, 184 191 ;
shewn by ex-
this
78 81. In what cases it ought to be amples, 192, 193, some of them used in
made to men, 82 who ought to be se- ; the Romish Church, 195, 196. Per-
lected for it, 83 ; public, for what offences plexity of the doctors of that Church in
enjoined in the primitive Church, 84, 85, their attempts to reconcile these prayers

48. Ancient form of Confession canoni- with the doctrine of purgatory, 196, 197,
cal, not sacramental, 89. Public Con- 198. Opinions of the Fathers respecting

fession, forbidden in the East, 87, and in the state of departed souls, 198203, of
the West, 89. Various opinions on this Suarez and others of later date, 204, 205.
subject, 92. Yearly Confession to a Origin of the opinion that the souls of
priest, when and inwhat sense first en- the dead do not enter upon their con-

joined, 96, 97.; on what authority the dition of happiness or misery till after the

practice of Confession rests, 98, 99. resurrection, 205, 206 ;


controversies re-
Congruity and Condignity, by whom these specting it, 207, 208. Intercession for
terms were invented, 268. the dead supposed to be a means of aug-
Constance, Council of, speech of the Eng- menting the happiness of the saints and
lish Ambassadors at, 628. mitigating the torments of the condemned,
Constantinople, Council of, decree in, re- 210, 211. Stories of the benefit which
specting the sacramental bread, 65. infidels and idolaters are said to have re-

Contrition, distinguished from attrition, 133, ceived from, 213216. Mischievous


138. effects of this notion, 217, Origin of
Creed, Articles of the, common agreement the service for All Souls' Day, 218. Ob-
of Christians required in, 362. jection that prayers do not profit the

Apostles', why it omits some arti-


, dead, how answered, 220226. That
cles, 704. the intention of the ancient Church in
, of the Western Churches, a parti- praying for the dead differed from that
cular in which it differed from that of the of the Roman Catholics, shewn, 220 229.
East, 704. It appears from the argumeats of Epi-

-, Nicene, account of its compilation, phanius on this subject, against Aerius,


705. that he knew nothing of purgatory, 230.

('rump, Henry, a Cistercian monk, silenced, The Romish Church holds the opinions
572. of Aerius, on this point, 232 ;
on what
728 INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

grounds his opinions were condemned, Forgiveness of sins, properly belongs to God
233. Division of opinion as to the efficacy alone, 100; reply of a woman to St Basil,
and propriety of prayers for the dead, respecting, 110.
233; their profitableness and even their Francis, St, vision said to have been seen by,
lawfulness denied, after popery had at- 429.
tained its greatest height, 237. Free-will, definition of, 447 see Will. :

Death, immediately succeeded by an eternal Funeral ordinances of the primitive Church,


condition, 152 ; regarded with cheerful- 170.
fulness by the ancient Christians, 153; Furseus, vision of, 541, 542.
how different from Hades, 314, 353.
Decretal Epistles, 12. Gillebertus, the Roman Liturgy introduced
Devils, in the possessed, what regard ought by him among the Irish, 548.
to be paid to their confessions, 380, 381. Gnostics, use of images introduced by, 441.
Dispiter, what the appellation implies, 284. Grace, ambiguous use of the term by Pela-
Divinity of Christ, proved from his power gius, 455, et seqq.
to forgive sins, 103, 104, 105. Grave, see Sheol.
Divorce, customs of the ancient Irish Church Greek Church, never admitted the doctrine
respecting, 564. of purgatory, 167 ; opinion in it respecting

Donatists, exorbitant power of absolution the separate state of the soul, 205, 206.
assumed by, 143. , Liturgy, quoted, 297, 309 ; use of
Dreams and visions, observations upon the the word " Hades" in it, 350.
appearance of the dead in, 379.
Dulia and Latria, an idle distinction, 403. Hades, meaning of the word, 273, 283, et

Dunstan, anecdote of his praying for the seqq.


dead, 175 obtains the release of King
:
Hell, our Lord's descent into, how under-
Edwin's soul from torment, 210. stood by the Fathers, 256, 257 ; what
Dying, instructions and consolations for the. effects they believed to have followed it,
attributed to Abp. Anselm, 492. 258 ;
some ancient writers of opinion
that his preaching to the spirits in prison
Earth, notions of the ancients respecting its does not refer to it, 265 ; contrary sup-
structure, 322, held also by the Fathers of ported by tradition, 266; this article
the Church, 323. omitted by the Nicene Fathers, 267 the ;

Easter, celebration of, difference on this point Arians falsely accused of rejecting it, 267 ;

between theEastern and WesternChurches, scarcely to be found in the early creeds,


stated, 600 ; synod held in England for the 269; in what form admitted, 270; re-
settlement of this question, 607. ceived now by all Churches, 271. Im-
"
Elements, sacramental, not to be despised, port of the word hell," 272277, of
669,670. " " sheol" and
the grave," 278, 279, of
"
'Em-cKpiao-fjLos, or preparation of Christ for hades," 280286. Infernus and inferi
burial, supposed to be meant in the Creed used for the grave, 292, 293. The articles
by his burial, 298, 299. of our Lord's descent into hell, and of his
Eucharist, why so called, 551. burial, tend to the same point, 294; un-
Europe, how formerly divided, 629. derstood by the ancient doctors to mean
the same thing, 299307. Some parti-
Faith, the means whereby we partake of cular saints believed to have risen with
"
Christ, 668 bestowed in various degrees,
; Christ, 30831 1 . The words ' '
hell and
"
ibid.; some of its objects may be under- hades," applied indifferently to the place
stood by natural reason, 704. of souls, whether in bliss or misery, by
,
must be fruitful, 535, 536.
saving, the Fathers, 312, the Jews, 313, and hea-

Fasting, what it meant in the ancient British then philosophers, 315 320. Heathen
Church, 574 ;
virtue of, in what it consists, notions respecting the situation of Hades,

575, 576. 321 325, rejected by the early Chris-


Fathers, not free from error, 24, 26, 27, 29. tian writers, 326 328 ;
various opinions

, meaning
of the phrase to be " ga- of the latter, 330338. KaTe\0e?i/ eh
thered to his fathers," 313. adov, what it signifies, 338. That Hades
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 729

expresses merely the common state of pean kingdoms, 628 ;


faithful services of

the dead, shewn from heathen authors, its inhabitants to the crown of England,
343345, from Scripture, 345347, from 632.
the Fathers, 348 351, from the Greek and Irish Church ;
the British churches, gene-
Latin Liturgies, 352. Death, how dis- rally, celebrated in early periods for

tinguished from Hades, 353355 this ; knowledge of Scripture, 522 524 ; proofs
distinction applied to our Lord, 355 357. of their care in interpreting it, 525, 526 ;
Christ descended into the place of tor- their versions of the Psalter, 527 ; in what

ment by his divine power, 358, and de- light they regarded the apocryphal writ-
stroyed the power of hell, 359. ings, 528, 529 ; taught that grace makes
Henry I., writ of his, for the consecration of the distinction between the redeemed and
an Irish bishop, 593. the lost, 530, that the will to do good is
Henry II., his title to the kingdom of Ire- from God, 531, that we are saved by faith,
land, 622, 624, et seqq. 532535, and sanctified by grace, 537,

Hildebrand, Pope, brief of his quoted, 587. 538. No traces of the doctrine of purga-
Honorius I., requires the Irish Church to tory in them, 539 541, nor of other than
conform to the general custom relative to commemorative prayers for the dead,

Easter, 601. 543 546 ;


forbad the worship of any crea-
Howel Dha, law of his, respecting the chil- ture, 547 ; antiquity of their Liturgy, 548 ;
dren of priests, 566. when was superseded by the Roman,
it

Hyperdulia, what, 412, 429, 430. 549; the modern use of the words mass
and sacrifice unknown in them, 550, 551 ;

Idolatry, the Church of Rome chargeable the laity communicated in both kinds,
with, 674 ;
excuse of its members, that 552, 553 do not seem to have been ac-
;

they do not account the image itself to be quainted with the notion of transubstan-
God, does not clear them, 675 678 of ; tiation, 554 558 Chrism not used in
;

the sacrament, among them, 680. them, 558,. nor sacramental confession,
Ignorances, dyvori^a-ra, all sins so called, 560. Absolution held to be ministerial
719. only, 561 ; marriage not a sacrament, 562,
Illiberis, Council of, forbad pictures to be with a brother's widow forbidden, 563.
used in Churches, 437. Their customs concerning divorce, 564;
Images, not regarded by the heathen as gods, celibacy not imposed on the clergy, 565 ;

675. their monasteries were seminaries of learn-


, of, taught in the Romish
worship ing, 567 ; strictdiscipline observed in them,
Church, 430 a true and proper adoration
;
568 ;
laborious lives of their inmates, 569,
of the images themselves, 431 433 sup- ;
573 ;
contrasted with those of later times,

ported by a perversion of the first com- 570, 571. Their fasts, 574; what they
mandment, 434. Images and pictures taught respecting the authority of the
forbidden in churches in primitive times, Church, 577, and the vanity of pretended
435, and condemned by the Fathers, miracles, 597 581 .
They acknowledged
436440 ; by whom first introduced, 440 ;
Christ as the head of the Church, 581,

progress of the abuse of, 441, 442 ; con- 582, and considered St Peter's authority
troversies respecting it, 443 445. Images to be shared by the other apostles, 583,
not worshipped by the ancient Irish, 547. and by every priest, 584. At what period
Innocent III. declares the corporal pre- the authority of the see of Rome was first
sence to be included in the credenda of introduced into Ireland, 585 not acknow- ;

the Romish Church, 74. ledged till a late period, 586, 587 ;
elec-

Inquisitors, Spanish, passage in the writings tions of Archbishops and Bishops in


of an ancient Father mutilated by, 410. Britain and Ireland, made with the con-
Intercession, ancient forms of, 111, 112. currence of the Roman see, 588 593.
Ireland, formerly called the Island of Saints, Independence of the Irish Church ac-
586 ; by what right it belongs to the Eng- knowledged by the Romish writers them-
lish crown, 620, 621, 624 ; no proof that selves,595597, although they might
it ever was included in the Roman Empire, sometimes consult with that see on difii-
624 ; anciently ranked among the Euro- mlt questions, 598 differed from it, in ;
730 INDEX OF SUHJECTS.

regard to the celebration of Easter, 89; prayer for, in the Romish Liturgy,
599 603. Miraculous legends relative to 182, 183.
this question, 604 607 ; synod held to Life, eternal, its worth, 484, 485.
determine it, 607 ;
British Churches main- Limbus Patrum, various opinions about, 239.
tained hostility to Rome, on this ground, That the souls of the godly were not in
612, 613, alleging the novelty of its dog- heaven before our Lord's ascension, con-
mas, 614; what period they finally
at trary to Scripture, 240 ; opinion of the
submitted, 616, 617. Such differences not fathers and ecclesiastical writers, that by
" Abraham's bosom" meant Paradise,
anciently considered of importance to sal- is

vation, 618, 619. The Pope's pretended 241250. Divers of them, however, dis-
title to temporal authority in Ireland, 621, tinguished between the receptacle of pious
confuted, 622633. souls waiting for the resurrection, and hea-
Islands ; strange claim of the Church of ven, 250254.
Rome to all Christian islands, 623. Liturgies, ancient, forms of prayer for the
, Fortunate, the same Hades, or the dead found in, 171 ;
refer to the tradition

Elysian Fields, in the opinion of the that Adam rose from the dead with Christ,
ancients, 316,321. 309, 310.
Liturgy, or public service generally, an-
Jehoiakim, 277. ciently called the mass, 550.
Jerome, a pretended miracle ascribed to, , Egyptian, prayer for the dead in,
207. 184.
Jews, a knowledge of necessary truths sur- , of the ancient Irish, its antiquity,
vived their corruptions, 713. 547 ;
said to be the same as that of the

Job, said to have been raised from the dead Gauls, 549.
with Christ, 308 ; taught the immortality
of the soul, 314. Macarius, fable of his being addressed by a
Jonas, 277. skull, 215, 216.
Magnus, in what sense he desired to be
King, power of the, essentially supreme, prayed for after death, 545.
644 ; how distinguished from spiritual Marcus, a blasphemous magician, account
authority, 644 extends to ecclesiastical
; of, 61, 62.
as well as civil causes, 645, but without Manichees, their doctrine condemned, 446 ;

the power of the keys, 646, 647. Pelagians affected to refute them, 462.
Knowledge of good and evil, the tree of, why Marriage of a brother's widow, why pro-
so called, 718. hibited, 563.
of truth, difference between a Mailros, discipline of the monks at, 578.
theoretical and an experimental, 718. Martyrs, what respect to be shewn to their
of necessary truths, essential to memory, 369; their spirits said to have
salvation, 716. appeared at the places of their memorials,
376.
Lanfranc, doctrine of the corporal presence Mass, to what services this word was ori-

introduced in England by, 70. ginally applied, 550.


Laodicea, Council of, condemned the in- Mary, the Virgin, extravagant respect and
vocation of angels, 406, 672. adoration paid her by the Roman Catho-
Latria, distinguished from Dulia and Hyper- 412, et seqq.
lics,

dulia, 403, 434. Mendicant orders confirmed by Pope Ho-


Lazarus, the absolving power illustrated by norius, 572.
his resurrection, 136. Merces, /uo-flos, how explained by the

Lazerianus, Abbot of Leighlin, legend re- Roman Catholics, 477.


Merits, doctrine of, as held by the Church
specting, 605, 606.
Learning, services of the ancient monasteries of Rome, 473 on what principle God
;

in preserving it, 567. rewards men, 473, 474 the Romanists ;

Legate of the Pope, his cross worshipped, maintain that men's own merits formally
678. entitle them to eternal life, 475477.
Leo, Dp. of Rome, forbids public confession, This doctrine opposed to Scripture, 477,
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 731

and to the sense of tho Fathers of the first Opinion, difference of, no sufficient reason
500 years, 478 487, also to that of the why a division should be made in the
theologians of the next 500 years, 487 592, Church, 657.
and to that of later writers, 492 497. The Orange, Council of, Pelagians condemned
by the schoolmen
distinction, observed there, 468, 469.
between pro mentis and propter merita, Ostmans, settled in Ireland, 591, 594.
evaded, 497 many of those who held the
;

merit of condignity so explained it as to Pall, its late introduction into Ireland, 586.

agree with them who regard salvation as Papists, danger of communion with, 682.
depending solely upon God's mercy, Pardoners, their abuse of absolution, 144.
499 502. Testimonies against the doc- Paris, theological faculty of, gives sentence

trine,from recent divines of the Popish against merit of condignity, 502.


Church, 502, 503. Merit of Condignity Patrick, St, by whom sent into Ireland,
revived by the schoolmen from the Pe- 537 ;
descended from churchmen, 565 ;

lagians, 504. his authority in the Church, 584; pre-


Miracles, said to have been wrought in re- tended charter of, 594 a decree by him
;

lation to the question about Easter, 604, inconsistent with the liberties of the Irish
et seqq. ;
some writers prodigal of, 607. Church, 595.
Missal, Roman, its prayers for the dead, Paul, St, challenged no right to confer the
180. Holy Ghost, 111 equal to St Peter, 582.
;

, 197. Pelagians, supported their opinions by the


Monasteries, anciently the only seminaries examples of virtue among the heathen,
of sound learning, 567. 449 ; affected to oppose the Manichean
Monks, modern, their manner of life con- heresy, 462 ;
doctrine of the Semi-Pela-
trasted with that of the monks of earlier gians, 465, et seqq.condemned by the
;

periods, 750. See of Rome, 468, 469 ; notion of pre-


, Scottish, refuse to submit to the paratory works meriting grace by way
Roman custom respectingjEaster, 616. of congruity, derived from them. 471 ;

Montanists, denied the power of the Church prevalence of their opinions in the middle
to reconcile penitents, 117. ages, ibid.
Munna, founder of an Irish monastery, a Pelagius, the first to assert that the natural

reported miracle-worker, 606. choose good, 459 ; his equi-


will is free to

Muth, mo, a name of Pluto, 341. vocation, 454, 461 ; sum of his opinions,
504 ; by whom his heresy was opposed,
Nectarius, abolishes public confession for 536, 537.
sin, 89. Penances, early, different in their original
Nice, Council of, in 787, recommends the intention from the modern or sacramen-
use of images, 443 ;
its authority rejected, tal, 560.
in consequence, 445. Peter, St, what kind of primacy to be as-
Nilus, Abp. of Thessalonica, ascribes the cribed to him, 582; was Bishop of An-
distractions of the Church to the as- tioch before he became Bishop of Rome,
sumptions of the Bishops of Rome, 700. 649.
Novatians, did not admit the ancient dis- Picus, his fraudulent corruption of the text
ciplineof penitence, 89 ; denied the of Marcus, 482.
power of the Church to reconcile peni- Plato, tradition that he was converted by
tents, 117. Christ's preaching in hell, 266.
Nun, lewd story of one, 581. Pluto, same as Hades, or death, 340342.
Pope, encouraged rebellion, 630, 633 su- ;

Oaths of allegiance, how evaded by Ro- premacy of, by what title claimed, 648 ; its
man Catholics, 687. defects, ib. proved to be frivolous, 649.
Ocean, thought by the ancients to separate Popes, that they may depose kings, taught,
the visible world from Hades, 324. 684.
Offices, divine, evil of
making their efficacy Popery, its superstitions less pernicious than
depend upon the intention of the minis- ignorance of the common principles of the
ter, 681. faith, 7 Hi
732 INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Power, spiritual and temporal, distin- Rome, Church of, its errors introduced by
guished, 644, 645. degrees, 1 7 ; proofs of its corruption,
Prayer, one of the means whereby the 8, 9 authority supported by forged
; its

power of remitting sins is exercised, 109 ;


testimony, 12, 13, and by the mutilation
it is proper to pray for things which we of ancient writings, 14 18 ;
its claim to
know will come to pass, 186. be called " unspotted," considered, 20,
, Lord's, an extraordinary reading 21 to what extent we differ from it, 22
; ;

said to be found in some copies of it, 337. some of its doctrines acknowledged by
, mental, not offered to saints when Papists to have no authority in Scripture,
the custom of addressing them first grew 28; its advocates vituperate Protestants

up, 385. unfairly, 101 ; much contained in its


Prayers for the dead, opinion of their pro- offices that is untrue and unfit, 197 ;

fitableness not universal, 222 ; thought to when its authority began to extend to
be profitable both to them and to the Ireland, 585 ; testimony to its primitive
living, 223, 224 ;
in what sense offered
by integrity, 595
guilty of idolatry, 677,
;

the ancient Irish, 543 546. See Dead. 678, 679; answer to the enquiry, whe-
,
ancient forms of, 171, who lived in its com-
ther our ancestors

184, 192, 193, 211, 227, 228, 229 ; exam- munion may be saved, 708 many of its ;

ples of those addressed to the Virgin members unacquainted with its mon-
Mary, 424, et seqq. strous abuses, 709.

Preaching, one part of the ministry of re-


conciliation, 120, 121. Sacrament of the Lord's Supper when the ;

Priests, their power ministerial, not abso- use of the cup in it began to be withheld
lute, 124. from the laity, 4 ; ancient testimony to the
Protestants, how far they differ from the figurative sense of our Lord's words re-

Church of Rome, 22. specting the elements, 15, 16 ; sense in


Purgatory ; uncertain origin of this doctrine, which it is received by Protestants ; ma-
5 ; condemned by the whole current of terial presence of Christ's body not
the Gospel, 150, and by the early Fathers, intended in the Gospel, 42 55 ; in what
150156 ; its pagan source, 157 what : sense the Fathers taught that the bread
"
is meant by the fire" spoken of by St is Christ's body, 55 61 ; blasphemous

Paul, as designed to "try men's works," stories respecting the corporal presence,

159 ; opinions of the later fathers opposed 62, 63 ;


first notion of it derived from the
to the notion of purgatory, 160 ; doctrine East, 65;by whom propounded in the
of purgatorial fire first taught by Gregory Western Church, 67 primitive opinion ;

the Great, 161, but neither by him, nor defended by ancient writers, 69 73 ;

by any other doctor, for many ages after, when the doctrine of the corporal pre-
in the modern sense, 162165 rejected ;
sence became established in the Romish
by the oriental churches, 166, 167 ; way Church, 74 ;
two parts in a Sacrament,
prepared for it by praying for the dead, 661 ;
Christ truly received in, 664, not

178, 179, 230i 235 whether taught by


; corporeally, 665, but spiritually, 666, by
St Patrick, 539 where the place of pur-
; faith, 668 ; a test both of communion and

gatory is supposed to be situated, 542


; separation, 671.
the doctrine not necessarily connected Sacraments, their resemblance to the things

with prayer for the dead, 546. they signify, 54; the remission of sins
included in them, belongs properly to

Quartadecimans, to whom the term was ap- God, 119; in what sense they are signs,
662.
plied, 611.
Sacrifice, in what sense the term was used
Real presence see Sacrament. in the British Churches, 551.

Resurrection, first and second, how under- Saints, whether they are admitted
to enjoy

stood by some of the Fathers, 190, 191. the divine vision before the day of judg-

Rheims, divines of, declare good works to ment or not, long controverted, 373 375.
be the meritorious cause of salvation, 476, ,
Communion of, in what it consists,
503. 654 ;
its uses, 655 ;
what it implies, 659.
INDEX OK SUBJECTS, 733

Saints, invocation of, why excluded, 3(i'2 ; Soul, in Scripture, sometimes put t'oi tin-

not sanctioned by Scripture, 363, 364, nor body, 289.


by the early Fathers, 365369 doubtful ;
of Christ, in all points like that of other
beginnings of the practice, 372 ; reason men, 330.
why it could not be universal, 373375. Spirits, of the Martyrs, controversy respect-
Veneration for the Martyrs encreased by ing, 376379.
Supremacy of the Pope see Pope.
their supposed appearances at the places
of their memorials, 376, and the mira-
culous cures said to be wrought by them, Targum, 282.
382, 383 only temporal blessings at first
; Toledo, third Council of, form of absolving
supposed to be obtained by their inter- penitents laid down in, 116.
cession, 384; the practice, among the , fourth Council of,
what it declares

early Christians, of recommending them- respecting Baptism, 357.


selves to the prayers of the saints, fell Testament, what signified by the words,
" This
short of the modern practice of invocation, cup is the New Testament," &c.
385 ;
in what
particulars, enumerated, 53, 54.
385 Invocation of any but God
403. Thecla, St, prayer of hers for the soul of a
inconsistent with the design of prayer, as dead person, 215 ; miracles attributed to
stated by the fathers, 404 condemned as
; her, 381, 382.
idolatry, by Pope Adrian, 406 by the ; Theodore, Abp. of Canterbury, his Peni-
Fathers, 409411. Abuse of the hyper- tential, 93, 197.
dulia or worship of the Virgin, 412. Traditions, what kind of, received by Pro-
Schism, its effect upon the schismatic, 657. testant Churches, 31 ;
forbidden to be
Schisms, ancient, small in comparison of received as of divine authority, 32 36 ;

that made by the Romanists, 696. their first reception among Christians, 36 ;

Schoolmen, opinions of, respecting absolu- agreement between the Roman Catholics
tion, 131, 148. and some ancient heretics, in regard to,

Scriptures, not refused to the laity, in the 37 ; promoted by the monks of the middle
early ages, 9 ; their testimony to be pre- ages, 38.
ferred to that of the Fathers, 10, 11 ; bold- Trajan, said to have been delivered from
ness of the Romanists in appealing to them, hell by the prayers of Pope Gregory,
28 ; their authority may not be transferred 213.
to tradition, 31, 32; their sufficiency as- Transubstantiation, 1317 ;
the real ques-
serted by the Fathers, 3238 ; by what tion in regard to whether bread be
it, is,

steps they came to be denied to the laity, turned into Christ's body, 42 ; at what
39,40 ; much studied in the British Islands, moment the change of the elements is said

522, et seqq. to take place, 52


does not appear to have
;

Sedulius, Ccelius, uncertain who he was, been known in the ancient British Church,
555. 554 558. Transubstantiation, a kind of

Separatists, their errors, 696. generation of Christ, 709.


Septuagint, anciently preferred to the Vul- Trent, Council of, 17, 75, 99, 133, 287, 706 ;

gate by the British, 525. its catechism enjoins the worship of images,
Serenus, Bp. of Marseilles, images destroyed 431. See Sacrament.
by, 442.
Sheol, "riKtt>, meaning of that word, 275, 276, Union with Christ, consists in having the

278, 280, et seqq. same spirit, 666.


Sixtus IV., indulgence granted by to those Unity, Christian, its importance, 658 com- ;

who prayed to the Virgin, 423. munion with Christ the foundation of it,
Smyrna, testimony of the Church of, re- 660 distinguished from an union of policy,
;

specting prayer, 369. 700; refers only to the foundation, 701,


Solemnities, means of preventing the Church and admits great variety in the superstruc-
from falling into ignorance of necessary ture, 702, 703.
principles, 710.
"
Sorrows of death," meaning of the phrase, Wicked, the, do not really partake of Christ
287. in the Sacrament, 48, 49.
734 INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Wilfrid, his speech respecting the observ- of Vitalis respecting the will, 463, 464 ;
ance of Easter, 609 ; chosen Archbishop of the Semi-Pelagians, 465. Freedom, in
of York, 610. the Pelagian sense, anciently condemned
Will, freedom of, not denied by Protestants, by the see of Rome, 468, 469.
445, but understood by them in a limited Works, cannot deserve eternal life of con-
sense, 447. Works proceeding from an dignity, 501. See Merit.
evil will cannot be good, 448450. The of the heathen, by what means
natural will cannot choose good, 453 ; vitiated, 449, et seqq.

Pelagius first advanced the contrary, 454 ;

evasive senses in which he understood the Zoroaster, fiction of his return to life after

term Grace, refuted, 455461. Notions being slain, 317.


INDEX OF AUTHORS CITED.

ACACIUS, 58. Anastasius Sinaita, 205, 237, 266, 490.


Adamnanus, 550, 604, 605. Andradius, 265 on the meaning of the word
;

Ml frick, "
70, 75. Hell," 287.
.i-Elius Lampridius, 437. Andrew, Abp. of Cassarea, opinion of the,

Aerius, the heretic, objected, against the Greek Church respecting the separate
Church, the unprofitableness of prayer state of souls, ascribed to, 208.
for the dead, 221. Andrew, Bp. of Crete, his opinion respect-
Agapetus, 489. ing the soul's descent into Hades, 333.
Agobardus, 443, 444. Anselm, 147, 429 taught that none can be
;

Alcuin, his opinion respecting confession, saved by his own merits, 493, 494, 587.
92; prayers for the dead compiled by Anthony, St, 39 ; preached against human
him, 180, 185. merit, 484.

, 293, 559. Apollodorus, 324.


Alexander of Hales, 62, 110; remark by Aquinas, opinion respecting the necessity
him on forms of absolution, 115; his of confession, 96 ; his treatise of the form
of absolution, 113 ; among those who
plea for saint- worship, 395.
Allen, 620.
first brought the doctrine of purgatory
into general esteem, 166; on what he
Altissiodorensis, 391.

Ambrose, St, ascribes the office of for- grounds the profitableness of prayer for
the the dead, 231.
giving sins to Christ alone, 105;
, 216, 217, 360, 432, 474.
ministry of it to the priest, 107, 108 : his

conduct respecting confession, 111 ; Arator, effect of Christ's appearance in hell,


teaches the conditional nature of ab- described by, 258, 302.

solution, 132; his opinion of the state Ardens, Radulphus, 147.


of the soul immediately after death, 154, Arnaldus Bonsvallensis, 258.
203 ; his language inconsistent with the Arnobius, 6.
belief of purgatory, 172,
173; prayer for ;
Arundel, Abp. 430.
the dead by him, 184 explains the
;
Asser Menevensis, 536.
"
phrase Abraham's bosom," 246 asserts ; Athanasius, asserts the sufficiency of Scrip-
that our Lord descended into the place ture, 34 ascribes forgiveness of sins ta
;

of torment, 257, to give liberty to them God alone, 103 ; opinion respecting the
that were there, 304 believed that Job
;
state of souls, 154 explains why our
;

rose from the dead with our Lord, 308 ;


Lord did not see corruption, 297 ;
infers
condemns the use of images, 437, 438 ;
the divinity of Christ from our being,
rejects the doctrine of merit, 480, directed to pray to him, 371 ; worship of
, 34, 49, 103, 116, 146, 260, creatures condemned by him, 410, 411.
310, 347, 358, 393, 397, 405, 411, 478. , 44, 166, 254, 311, 356, 378.
Ambrosius Ansbertus, 491. Augustine, his method of controversy with
Anastasius Sinaita, directions by him re- the Donatists and Pelagians, 10, 11 ;

specting penance, 117 > allows the priest's asserts the sufficiency of Scripture, 35 ;

forgiveness to be ministerial only, 118 ; in what sense he understood the eating of


opinion concerning the state of souls be- Christ's body, 45 distinguished between
;

fore thecoming of Christ, 253 concern- ; eating really and sacramentally, 48, 49 ;
ing the appearances of departed saints, understood the body of Christ to be spi-
378. ritually present in the Sacrament, 58 ;
736 INDEX OF AUTHORS CITED.

requires public confession for notorious regarding prayers for the dead, incon-
offences, 84, 85 ;
defines the respective sistent with a belief in purgatory, 174.
offices of the Holy Ghost and the mi- Bede, 245, 264, 293, 490, 522, 524, 544, 552,
nister in forgiving sins, 107 ;
ascribes the 553, 560, 567, 570, 573, 601, 604, 605,
sacramental power in baptism to God 608, 612, 614, 615, 619.
alone, 119 ; power of absolution limited Begging of monks, reproved, 571.
by, 130, 134 ; reproves its abuse, 142 ; Bellarmine, endeavours to reconcile the
teaches in what cases penance may be ancient mode of praying for the dead
relaxed, 145; opinion respecting the with the doctrine of purgatory, 184, 185,
" fire" which to
" men's works,"
is try 187; opinion of, respecting the souls of
159 on intercession for the dead, 176,
;
the fathers, 240. Instance of his unfair-
178, on the state of the soul between ness in controversy, 290, 292 ; reason as-
death and the resurrection, 199, 200; signed by, why the invocation of saints
" Abraham's bosom" ex-
the meaning of is not commanded in the Old Testament,

plained by him, 243, 244 ; opinion of the 363.


effect of Christ's descent into hell, 258 ; , 7, 24, 51, 165, 266, 281, 289,
denies the term
" hell" to be
applicable 361, 371, 372, 375, 376, 402, 412, 475,
to the abode of righteous souls, 271, uses 541, 542, 673, 681.
it as a synonyme for the grave, 295 ; Benefices, an ancient abuse relative to, 566.
replies to the question, whether all men, Bernard, 472, 474, 478, 548, 558, 588.
or the wicked only, go down to hell, 329 ;
Bernard of Clairval, teaches that salvation
how he our delivery thence by
illustrates is not of merit but of the divine mercy,
Christ, 359 judicious observations by,
;
496.

respecting dreams and visions, 379, 380 ; Bernardinus de Busti, 428.


says, the dead do not know what concerns Bernardinus de Senis, his extravagant spe-
the living, 386, 387 ;
teaches that inter- culations respecting the Virgin, 428.
cession the prerogrative of Christ alone,
is Bernardus Morlanensis, 495.
393 ;
condemns the invocation of saints Berengarius, 63.
and angels, 411, and the worship of Bertram, (or Ratrannus), opinions of this

images, 438; asserts the freedom of the writer, concerning the Eucharist, 17, 18,
will, 447 ; denies that works not done 69 ; employed to write on that subject,
in faith can be truly good, 450; refutes 68.
the Pelagian notions concerning grace, Biel, Gabriel, 149, 388, 391, 395.
455, 456, 457, 458, 459 controversy with
; Binius, a canon corrupted by, 469.
Vitales, 463, 464 ;
with the Semi-Pela- Bishop, Dr, his censure of a Protestant
gians, 466; teaches that we may regard opinion refuted, 336.
God as our debtor, not in consequence of Bonaventure, 115 ; prayers composed by,
our merits, but of his promise, 485, 486. for the worship of the Virgin Mary, 424,
Augustine, 15, 20, 25, 27, 54, 64, 108, 109, et seqq.

123, 217, 239, 291, 298, 308, 353, 374, Boniface, Abp. of Mentz, 524.
383, 384, 403, 405, 441, 472, 479, 495, Boniface, election of an archbishop de-
496, 531, 575, 675. scribed by, 589.
Azorius, 232, 403, 433. Boverius, 430.
Bradwardine, complains of the prevalence
Bangor, monks of, their laborious life, 573. of Pelagianism, 471 opposes the doc-
;

Bannes, Dominicus, 28, 684. trine of human merit, 498.


Baronius, 596, 597, 672, 684. Brampton, John, 626,
Basil, St, asserts the sufficiency of Scripture, Brendan, St, strange narrations in the ac-

34, 39 ;
his opinion of oral confession, 80, count of his life, 543.
83 ; limits the priest's absolution, 130 ;
British Islands, celebrated in early times
his definition of prayer, 404. knowledge of Scripture, 523, 524.
for the

, 42, 110, 170,248, 302,


480. Broughton, 337.
Basil of Seleucia, 215, 277, 349, 351, 381.

Bede, his sentiments respecting confession, Cabasilas, Nicolaus, 181.


92, and absolution, 104 his testimony ; Caesarius, 258, 302, 538.
INDEX 0*' AUTHORS CITED. 737

Cajetan, 5, 30, 342, 430. our Lord's descent into hell, 259, 262,
Campion, 585, 591, 622. 263 condemns the use of images, 435.
;

Canus, Melchior, 28, 437. Clemens Alexandrinus, 56, 317, 368.


Cardoc, 527. Clemens Scotus, censured for his opinions
Casaubon, 273, 283. respecting our Lord's descent into hell,
Cassander, enjoins the duty of prayer for 262.
the dead, 232, 390. Cogitosus, 581, 585.
Cassianus, 470, 471. Columban, 536, 546, 568.
Cassiodorus, 453, 505. Colum Kill, St, Prophecy attributed to,
Castro, Alphonsus de, 186. 605.
Celestius, 536, 569. Coppinger, 596.
Cerameus, Gregorius, 205. Coster, 28, 680.
Cicero, his opinions respecting the state of Crump, Henry, 557, 572.
departed souls, 319, 321 340. , Cummianus, his authority quoted respect-
Charlemagne, 176,491. ing the observance of Easter, 602, 603.
Clarius, Isidorus, 289. Cyprian, St, regarded absolution by the
as only declaratory, 129, 134;
Chrysologus, Petrus, 269. priest

Chrysostom, St, places the preference of opinions of his irreconcileable with pur-
tradition to Scripture among the marks gatory, 151.
of antichrist, 38 opinion respecting the
; , 57, 169.
spiritual presence of Christ in the Sacra- Cyril, St, (of Alexandria) maintaining the
ments, 59 ;
extracts from his writings, sufficiency of Scripture, 36, teaches that
against auricular confession, 77, 88 ; to forgive sins appertains to God alone,
maintains the exclusive authority of God, 103, 107 opposed the doctrine of purga-
;

in the forgiveness of sins, 105 ; intention tory, 160; believed that Christ by his
of the ancient Church, in praying for the preaching emptied hell, 261, 360.
dead, 178 his opinion regarding our
; , 248, 333, 347, 350, 487, 673.
Lord's descent into hell, 301, 307 ; taught Cyril, St, (of Jerusalem) 306, 350.
that the intercession of the living may
enhance the glory of departed saints, 210, Damascen, John, 404, 445.
212 uses the word " hell" in the sense of
; Damianus, Peter, 220.
the grave, 305 answer to an enquiry, in
; Didymus, 480.
what place it is situated, 326 admoni- ; Dionysius, 343, 357.
tion respecting the saying of the possessed, Diphilus, 316.
respecting dreams, &c. 380, 381 ; teaches Durand, 96, 218, 500.
the propriety of directing prayer imme-
"
diately to God, 396, 398, 399, and that Ecclesiastical Hierarchy," opinions of
our own prayers are more efficacious than the writer of that work, in
regard to
those of others for us, 400, 401, 402 ; con- prayers for the dead, 234, 235, 236 ; con-
demns the invocation of saints and angels, demns the worship of the Virgin, 413.
406 ; opposed to the doctrine of merit, Eddi, 607.
483 ;
his testimony to the respect paid to Egilwardus, 599.
Scripture in the British Islands, 522. Elias Cretensis, 490.
, 107, 109, 171, 247, 253, Ennodius, 488.
254, 334, 340, 348, 404. Epicharmus, 318.
Claudius, the sense in which faith was un- Epiphanius, what answer he gives to the
derstood the British, explained by,
among opinion that prayers for the dead are un-
535 ; opinion of this writer respecting profitable, 221 , 222, 223, 224, 225 ; strange
absolution, 561 explains the virtue of
; speculation of his respecting the resur-
fasting, 575 ;
sentiments of, respecting rection of Adam, 311 ; tears down an
the foundation of the Church, 582, image, 439 his opinion against the Ca-
:

584. tharists, 505.


, 521, 525, 537, 541, 546, 547, 631, 346, 441.
,

633. Ephrem of Antioch, 60.


Clemens Alcxandrinus, on the design of Erasmus, 640.
3A
738 INDEX OF AUTHORS CITED.

Eugenicus, Marcus, 166, 205. Gregory, St, ascribes forgiveness of sins to


Euripides, 344. God alone, 100 ;
condemns the abuse of
Eusebius, opinion of this father on the im- absolution, 128 ; limits its efficacy to true
" eat his
port of our Lord's precept to penitents, 136 ;
teaches the nothingness of
flesh," &c. 46, 58. human merits, 489.
Emissenus, 36, 347, 351, 704.
Eusebius Emissenus, 258, 334, 488. Harding, 624.
Eustathius, 323, 331. Haymo, 491.
Euthymius, 102. Henry of Saltrey, 539.
Ferus, 109 ; opinions respecting remission of Herebaldus, 15, 17.
sins, taught by, 149. Hermes Trismegistus, 283.
Firmicus, Julius, 284. Hesiod, 324.
Fisher, Bp. of Rochester, 5, 30. Hilarius Aquitanicus, on the opinions of the

Fitz-Rolph, Richard, 570. Semi-Pelagians, 465.


Fredegodus, 608, 616. Hilary, St, asserts the sufficiency of the
Fulbertus, 14. Holy Scriptures, 34 ; ascribes the power
Fulgentius, asserts the descent of our Lord of forgiving sins to God alone, 101 ;
his

into the place of torment, 257 ; that works opinion respecting the separate state of
not performed in faith may yet be good, the soul, 154 explanation of the meaning
;
"
453. of Abraham's bosom," 251, 252 ; of our
, 43, 488. Lord's descent into hell, 331.
, 78, 302, 304, 325, 713.
Callus, 530, 569. Hippocrates, in what sense he uses the word
"
Gelasius, 60, 236. Hades," 283, 284.
Gellius, 354. Hippolytus, the Martyr, opinion respecting
Gennadius, 160. the authority of Scripture as opposed to

Gildas, censures the hypocrisy of the monks, tradition, 33.


577 ; teaches that the authority of St Peter Hosschelius, 205, 482.
is in every priest, 584. Holcot, 498.
, 527, 528, 549, 578. Homer, 285.
Giraldus Cambrensis, 539, 543, 549, 562, Hopkins, Richard, 100.
564, 565, 586, 621, 627. Hoveden, 626.
Gobarus, 222. Hugo Cardinales, his opinion respecting
Gratian, 94, 97, 387. absolution, 148.
Gregorius de Valentia, 4. Hugo Etherianus, 214, 238.
Gregory Ariminiensis, 500. Hugo de Sancto Victore, 386, 387.
Nazianzen, opposed to the doctrine
of purgatory, 156 ; denies the profitable- Ignatius, on our Lord's descent into hell, 305.
ness of prayers for the dead, 233 first in- ; ,369.
stance of invocation addressed to departed Innocent III., his apology for the Romish
saints, found in his writings, 371, 372. prayers for the dead, 211.
, 248, 259, 349, 352. Irenaeus, distinguishes between the real and
of Neocsesarea, teaches that the dead sacramental presence in the Eucharist,
enter immediately upon an unchangeable 55, 56 ;
ascribes the power to forgive sins

condition, 153 ;
his opinion respecting our to God alone, 101 ;
his description of the
Lord's descent into hell, 301. state of the soul between death and the
-, 369. resurrection, 332.
Nyssen, sentiments respecting tra- ,22,62,355.
dition, 35 ; against the necessity of con- Isidorus Pelusiota, 656.
fessing to men, 79 ;
on our Lord's descent Isocrates, 372.
into hell, 300 ;
his dialogue with Macrina Ivo, Bp. of Chartres, 147.
on the place of departed souls, 326, 327 ; ,211.
his definition of prayer, 404; condemns
the worship of any creature, 409, 410. Jacobus de Everbaco, 501.
, 82, 250, 251 . Jacobus de Graffiis, 434.
INDEX OF AUTHORS CITED. 739

Jerome, opposed to the authority of trad Marcus, his opinion against the doctrine ot
tions, 35 condemns rash absolutions, 130
; ; human merit, 482.
limits the efficacy of absolution, 135 ;
Master of Sentences, see Lombard.
account of the origin of its abuse, 141 ;
Maxentius, 453.
his opinion of the state after death, 156 ;
Maximus Tauriensis, 80, 293, 377.
denies the utility of prayers for the dead, Medina, teaches that it is lawful to pray for
233 ;
held that our Lord descended into things which will certainly come to pass,
the lowermost hell, 256 what he meant 186 ; perplexed attempts of his to recon-
;

by Hades, 328; rejects the doctrine of cile the ancient prayers for the dead with
human merit, 481. the doctrine of purgatory, 196, 197.

, 9, 58, 102, 264, 330, 340, 351, 377, Mendoza, 198, 232, 280.
385, 451, 477, 505, 522, 525, 536, 547, Michael of Bononia, 98.
562. Minucius Felix, 436.
Johannes Diaconus, story relative to the More, Sir Thomas, supplication of the souls
corporal presence, related by, 63. in purgatory, 151.
John of Salisbury, 623, 626. Moschion, 318.
Jonas, 524, 553, 620.
Josephus, states the opinions of the Jewish Nectarius, 352.
sects respecting the place of departed Nennius, 526, 565, 588.
souls, 321. Nicephorus, Gregoras, 333.
Justin Martyr, 55, 154. Nicetas Choniates, 315.
Nicetas Serronius, 405.
Lactantius, 316, 333, 351, 436. Novatian, 103, 333 ; infers the divinity of
Lawrence, Bp. of Novaria, 91. Christ from prayer being addressed to
Leo, 303, 331, 384. him, 370.
Lombard, Peter, ( Master of the Sentences)
on the priest's power of absolution, 125, (Ecumenius, 494.
131, 148 questions whether the saints
; Olympiodorus, opinion respecting the state
hear the prayers of suppliants, 387 ; in of the soul immediately after death, 161.
what sense prayers should be made to , 285,
335.
them, 392. Optatus, 105, 106, 128.
,104. Origen, opposed to tradition, 33; distin-
Lorinus, 313. guishes between the typical or symboli-
Lucian, 321. cal, and the true body of Christ, 47, 56 ;
Lucretius, his argument for the existence of his advice respecting confession, 83, 86 ;
Hades, 326. opinion about the separate state of souls,
Lyranus, 288, 292. 201 ; dialogue on the subject of the rich
man and Lazarus, 241 sentiments on our
;

Macarius, distinguishes between a real and Lord's descent into hell, 260; believed
sacramental eating of Christ's body, 49, that departed saints assist those on earth
58 ;
his opinion of the future state of the with their prayers, 365, but teaches that
soul opposed to purgatory, 155. we ought not on that account to pray to
,306,481. them, 366368; infers the divinity of
Major, 149. Christ from his being addressed in prayer,
Maldonat, limits the authority of the priest 370 ;
use of images condemned by, 435.
in absolving, 130 doubts what is meant
; , 46, 249, 279, 297, 310, 356, 479.
"
by Limb us Patrum," 239. Osbern, 175.
, 475. Osullevan, 599, 601, 625.
Manilius, 319. Otto Frisingensis, 164.
Mantuan, 615.
Marcion, the first that assigned a place in Pacianus, opinions on absolution, 129.
hades to the Fathers, 241. Pagnin, 289.
Mariana, teaches that it is lawful to take Palladius, 215.
away the life of a tyrant, 685. Panormitan, 98.
Marianus, 536. Paschatius Radbertus, 17, 62, 68.
740 INDEX OF AUTHORS CITED.

Patrick, St, 523, 526 ;


his description of the Sanctius, 346.
invisible world, 540 ;
canon by him for Sanders, 622, 680, 681.
regulating divorces, 564. Saxo, Ludolphus, 429.
Paulus Burgensis, 503. Scotus, Johannes,, opinions of, respecting
Peckham, Abp. of Canterbury, his Psalter
praying to saints, 388; the sacramental
of the salutations of the Virgin, quoted,
elements, 557.
427, 428. Sedulius, his corrections of the Vulgar Latin
Pedro de Cabrera, arguments for the proper New Testament, 525; his explanation
adoration of images, 432, 433. of faith,534; condemns the doctrine
Pegna, 374. of merit, 538 ; excludes purgatory, 541 ;

Pelagius, Alvares, condemns the abuse of quoted respecting the sacramental ele-
confession, 144. ments, 556.
Pererius, 26, 280. Sedulius, 521, 526, 537, 547, 562, 563, 630.
Pesantius, 381. ,(Ccelius),his opinion regarding
the
Petrus de Alliaco, 497. bread and wine in the Sacrament, 556.
Petrus Blesensis, 494. Semeca, on the necessity and origin of con-
Petrus Cluniacensis, 237.
fession, 97, 98.
Philo Carpathius, 302. Seneca, 276.
Philo Jud26us,241. Severus, Bp. of Antioch, 272.
Pighius, 373. Sigebertus Gemblacensis, story related by
Pindar, 285 ;
his opinion with respect to a him, 218.
future state, 318. Simeon Metaphrastes, monstrous story told

343 by, 64.


Pinuphius, 78. Smaragdus, 492.
Plato, 314 ; his opinion respecting Hades, Sophocles, 344.
317, founded on the writings of the Jewish Stapleton, 90, 374, 375, 376.
Prophets, 320. Stella, 30.
Plutarch, 316, 344. Steuchus, 280.
Polydore Virgil, 621. Suarez, teaches that the soul does not enter
Prato, de, 393. its final state till the resurrection, 204 ;

Primasius, 252. opinion of, as to our Lord's descent into


Proclus, 359. hell, 361.
Procopius, 261 ;
on the form of the earth, ,684.
the
323. Sutor, Petrus, reasons of, for debarring
Prosper, asserts the sufficiency of confession people of the use of Scripture, 40.
to God alone, 80; explains death and
Hades tobe the same, 351 ; controverts Tacitus, 479.
the Pelagian doctrine, 451, 452, 455, 458 ; Taliessin, 614.
describes Semi-Pelagianism, 466, 467 ; Taurus, 354.
condemns the doctrine of human merit, Terry, Dr, 539.
487. Tertullian, opinion of, concerning traditions,
Prudentius, 211, 248, 304. 33 ; how the eating of Christ's body, &c.
Pythagoras, 318. understood by, 44 ; distinguishes the state
" Abraham's bosom" from
denoted by
Rabanus, Abp. of Mentz, his sentiments heaven and hell, 251, 255 ; the hell into
respecting the Eucharist, suppressed by which our Lord descended, how described
the Roman Catholics, 15, 17. by, 332 forbids prayer to any but God,
;

, 68, 491. 360.


Radulphus, Ardens, 495. Thaddaeus, 305.
Richard of Armagh, 498. Theodoret, maintains the exclusive authority
Ruffinus, 294, 350. of Scripture, 36 ;
teaches that the body of
Rupertus Tuitensis, 495. Christ present in the Sacrament sym-
is

bolically, 59, that salvation is not the


Sa, 288. reward of merit, but the gift of God, 487.
Salmeron, '25, 51, 364, 373, 396. , 320, 672.
INDEX OF AUTHORS CITED. 741
r
Thcodorus Prodromus, the meaning of Hades V asquez, statement of the doctrine of merit,
inferred from his poems, 348. 475, 476.
Theophilus, Bp. of Antioch, 57, 252. Vincentius Lirinensis, 11,24.
Theophylact, opinion of, respecting those Virgil, 325.
who die in sin, 209 ; on the ancient notions Vitalis, his opinions on grace, refuted, 463.
respecting Hades, 328 ;
shews the efficacy
of direct prayer to God, in opposition to Walafridus Strabus, 544, 570.
the intercession of saints, 401. Walden, Thomas, 503.
INDEX OF TEXTS.

GENESIS.
i v 7
INDEX OF TEXTS. 743

ISAIAH.
744 INDEX OF TEXTS.

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NAMES OF THE AUTHORS.


ABERDEEN, Right Kev. W. Skinner. Davys, Very Rev. George, D.D. Nichplls, Rev. B. E.. Walthamstow
D.D., Bishop of Dean of Chester Norris, Rev. W., Warblington
Acklaml. Rev., D.D., St. Mildred's Dealtry, Rev. \V., D.D., Clapham OHIO. Right Rev. C. P. M'llvaine,
Ainger, Kev. T., Greenwich EDINBURGH, Right Rev. J. Walker, D.D., Bishop of
Allen, Rev. S. J., Salesbury D.D., Bishop of Olivaut, Rev. A., M.A., Vice Prin-
Anderson, Rev. J.S.M., Brighton EXKTER, Right Rev. II. Philpotts, cipal of St. David's Col. Lampeter
Anderson, Rev. R., Brighton D.D., Lord Bishop of Parry, Venerable Archdeacon
Anderson, Rev. M., East Dulwich Eyre, Rev. D. 1., Wmiurbouriie I'ariy, Kev. W. H.. Holt
Arnold, Rev. T., D.D., Rugby Gilly. Rev. Prebendary, Durham Pearson, Very Rev. H. N.. D.D.,
Arnold, Rev. T. K., Lyndon Girdlestone, Rev. C., Sedgeley Dean of Salisbury
Aspinal, Rev. J., Liverpool GUM-, Right Rev. George, D D., Pearson, Rev. G., Christian Advu-
Atkins, Rev. Preben. Chichester Bishop of Brechin cate, Cambridge
Ayre, Rev. J., Hampstead Gleig, Rev. G. R., Chelsea Hospital Pearson, Rev. J. N., Islington
BANOOU, Right Rev. Christopher HKREFORD, Hon. and Right Rev. E. Pellew, Hon. ami Verv Rev. G.,
Bethell, D.D., Lord Bishop of Grey, Lord Bishop of D.D., Dean of Norwich
BRECHIN. Rt. Rer. G. Gleig, D.D., Harvey, Rev. R., Horusey Penrose, Rev. J., Bracelmdge
Bishop of Harvey, Rev. W. W., Falmouth Pooley, Rev. J. H.. St. James's
BRISTOL, Right Rev. R. Gray, D.D., Haverfield. Rev. T. T., Goddiugtou Prosser, Rev. J. C., Newchurch
Lord Bishop of Hawkins, Rev. Dr., Provost of Oriel Pusey, Rev. E. B., B.D.. Regius
Baker, Rev. T., Whitburn Heathcote, Rev. C. J., Up. Clapton Professor of Hebrew, Oxford
Barrett. Rev. J. T., D.D., Beau- Heurtley, Rev. C. A., Fellow of ROCHESTER, Right Rev. G. Murray,
champ Roiling Corpus Christi, Oxford D.D., Lord Bishop of
Bartholomew, Rev.C.C., Hampstead Hinds, Rev. S., D.D., Queen's Col- Raikes, Rev. H., M.A., Chancellor
Bartlett, Rev. T., Canterbury lege, Oxford of Chester
Bastard, Rev. P. P., Hanworth Hoare, Venerable Archdeacon Ramsay, Rev. E. B., Edinburgh
Bather, Venerable Archdeacon Hodgson, Rev. J., Sittingbourne Raymond, Rev. W. F., Chaplain at
Berens, Venerable Archdeacon Hone, Rev. R. B.. Hales Owen Lincoln's Inn
Beresford. Rev. G., St. Andrew's Hone, Rev. J. F., Tirley Rickards, Rev. S., Stow Laugtoft
Blunt. Rev. J. J. Huntley, Rev. R. W
, Boxwell Riddle, Rev. J. K.. Harrow
Blunt, Re\. H , Chelsea Irvine. Rev. A., Leicester Rodwell, Rev. J. M., St. Peter's
Booue, Rev. J. S., Paddington Ives, Rev. C., Braddeu Russell, Rev J., D.D., St. Rotolph's
Boutflower, Rev. H. C., Bury James, Rev. W., Cobham Sandilauds, Rev. R., Cnrzou Chaiiel
Bowdler, Rev. T., Addingtou Jeremie, Rev. Prebendary Scholefield, Rev. J., M. A., Regius
Bowerbank, Rev. T. F., Chiswick Kennicott, Rev. B.,Monkwearmouth Professor of Greek at Cambridge
Brewster, Rev. J., Egglescliffe LONDON, Rt. Hon. and Rt. Rev. C. Scobell, Rev. E., St. Peter's
Aberdeen J. Blomneld, Lord Bishop of Short, Rev. T. V., St. George's
Browning, Rev. H., jun.,
Burton, the late Professor LICHFIELD and COVENTRY, Hon. and Short, Rev. W., Chippeuham
Burton, Rev. R. L., Shrewsbury Right Rev. H. Ryder, D.D., Lord Shiittleworth, Rev. p. N.. D.D.,
CHESTER, Rt Rev. John Bird Sum- Bishop of Warden of New College
ner, D.D., Lord Bishop of LIMERICK, Rt. Rev. J. Jebb, D.D., Simeon, late Kev. C., M.A., Fellow
CHICHESTER, Right Rev. E. Maltby, Lord Bishop of of King's College, Cambridge
D.D., Lord Bishop of LINCOLN, Rt. Rev. J. Kaye, D.D., Slade, Rev. J., Bolton-le-Moor
Campbell, Rev., A.M., Paddington Lord Bishop of Smith, Rev. S., St. George'*
Cator, Rev. Charles, Carshalton LLANDAFF, Right Rey. E. Cople- Smith, Rev. R., St. Bartholomew's
Chandler. Very Rev. Geo., D.C.L., ston, D.D., Lord Bishop of St. Barbe, Rev. R. F., Stockton
Dean of Chichester Latham, Rev. H., All Souls Stone, Rev.W., M A., Christ Church
Chevallier, Rev. Temple, Durham Lawsou, Rev. C., Foundling Thompson.Rev. F. E..Old Brentford
Cheyne, Rev. P., M.A., Aberdeen Lear, Rev. F., Chilmark Thomson, Rev. H., Wriugtou
Coleridge, Rev. D., M.A., Helston Le Bas, Rev. C. W., Shadwell Tomlinsou. Rev. G., St. Matthew.
Collins. Rev. C. Milstead
( Lindsay, Rev. H., Croydon Torry, Right Rev. P., D.D.. Bishop
Collinson, Rev. J., Gateshead Lowe, Rev. Precentor, Exeter of Duukeld and Dumblaue
Cooper, Rev. A., St. Mark's, London MORAY, Right Rev. A. Jolly, D D., Turner, Rev. Prebendary
Copleston, Rev. T. G., Offwell Bishop of Turtou, Very Rev. T.. D.D., Dt-au
Crauluid, Rev. C., Coventry M'lhaiue, Right Rev. C. P., D.D., of Peterborough
Cunningham, Rev. J. W., Harrow Bishop of the Protestant Episco- Twopeuy, Rev. R., Little Castorton
DUBLIN, Most Rev. 11. Whately, pal Churches in Ohio, America Tyler, Rev. J. E., St. (jih-s's
D.I)., Lord Archbishop of Marsh, Rev. E. G., Hampstead Vernon. Rev W. H., Bvckeulmm
DOWN and CONNOR, Right Rev. R. Medlaud, Rev. T., Dover WINCHESTER, Right Rev. C. R.,
Mant, D.D., Lord Bishop of Milman, Rev. H. H.. Reading Sumner. D.D., Lord Bishop of
DUNKELD and DUMBLANE, Rt. Rev. Molesworth, Rev. J., Canterbury Wigram, Rev. J. C., St. James's
P. Tom, I) D.. Bishop of Murray, Rev. A., Clapham Wilberforce, Rev. S., Isle of Wight
Dale, Rev. Thomas, St. Bride's Murray, Rev. Thomas B., St. Dun- Wilks, Rev. S. C.
Darnell, Rev. Prebendary, Durham htan's in the East

The work is complete in Five Volumes, either of which may be had separately at fo. Crf.
each, bound in cloth
and lettered. With the Fifth Volume are given separate Indicts of the
Authors, and of their subjects.
Two handsome Folio Volumes, Half-bound in Turkey Morocco, price Two Guineas ; or in
Twenty-four Parts, at Eighteen-pence each,

SACRED MINSTRELSY;
A COLLECTION OF
SACRED MUSIC FROM THE FINEST WORKS OF THE GREAT
MASTERS, BRITISH AND FOREIGN.
ARRANGED AS SOLOS, AND CONCERTED PIECES FOR PRIVATE PERFORMANCE, WITH
ACCOMPANIMENTS FOR THE PIANO-FORTE.

THE exclusive nature of nearly all existing collections of Sacred Music, and the high price at
which novelties are in general produced, renders this work particularly desirable. Many fine
productions, at present comparatively unknown, would be hailed with delight as additions to the
stores of Sacred Harmony, could they be procured in a familiar form and on reasonable terms.
The design of the present work, therefore, is to place within the reach of families, and of
persons unaccustomed to playing from score, really good practical music ; classical, yet not
laboriously and uselessly learned ; to introduce into the drawing-room many beautiful
compositions of enduring value, which, if not altogether unknown, have rarely been heard
except at Concerts or Oratorios ; and thus to attract towards Sacred Music a portion of that
patronage which is too generally bestowed, in so disproportionate a degree, upon works of a
secular kind.

SUiMMARY OF THE CONTENTS.


ALLEGRI, a Miserere for Five Voices CROFT, Dr., a Solo, a Trio, and MARCELLO, A Solo, Three Duets,
ANONYMOUS, a Sacred Round; a three Anthems and an Anthem
Sacred Song, ' Thou to whom all DUPUIS, Dr., Three Solos, a Trio, MASON, Rev. WILLIAM, Anthem,
power given'
is an Anthem, and a Double Chant '
Lord of all power and might'
ARNE, Dr., The Hymn of Eve FARRANT, RICHARD, Two Anthems, MEHUL, Sacred Song
ATTWOOD, THOMAS, Two Anthems, and a Gloria Patri MENDELSSOHN, Sacred Song
and a Vesper Hymn GALLIARD, JOHN ERNEST, Duet, MOZART, Three Airs, and three
a
BACH, SEBASTIAN, Choral, and a '
Join voices, all ye living souls' Quartetts
Sacred Song' GANSBACHER, JOHANN, Sacred Song NARES, Dr., A Solo, two Duets, and
BACH, EMANUEL, a Song for Christ- GAHPARINI, a Duet three Anthems
mas, and an Air GIBBONS, Dr. ORLANDO, a Nunc NEUKOMM, A Sacred Song, and a
BASSANI, Solo, '
Ascribe unto the Dimittis, a Sanctus, and an An- Sanctus
Lord' them PERGOLESI, A Motet and a Duct
BATTKN, Anthem, Deliver us, O GLUCK, Air, Maker of all !' PORTER, \V. I., Solo, 'Like as the
' '

Lord' GREENE, Dr. MAURICE, Three An- hart'


BATTISHILL, Trio, O Remember thems, four Solos, and a Duet PURCELL, HENRY, a Trio and two
not' HANDEL, Eighteen Solos, four Re- Anthems
BEETHOVEN, Three Sacred Songs, a citatives and Airs, a Quartett, PURCELL, THOMAS, A Funeral Chant
Trio, and a Quartett and four Chorusses REYNOLDS, JOHN, Anthem, My '

God, my God, look upon me


'

BBRNABKJ, Solo, Who can tell'


'
HARWOOD, Ode, ' The Dying Chris-
BLAKE, Dr., Duet, ' Thou slmlt tian to his soul" RIGHINI, Quartett, How blessed
'

show me* HAYDN, JOSEPH, a Hymn, Two the man'

ROGERS, Dr., Anthem, Teach me,


'

BLOW, Dr., Anthem, 'The Lord Duets, a Trio, and a Quartett


hear thee' HAYDN, MICHAKL, Quartett,
'
O OLord'
BOYCK, Dr., A Sacred Song, an An- Thou who kindly dost provide' ROMBERG, Trio, Pater Xoster'
'

them, two Duets, and a Sacred HAYES, Dr., Three Sacred Songs SARTI, Terzetto
HELWIG, L., Air, ' Bow down thine SCHULZ, Sacred Song, Glory be to
'
Round '

CARNABY, Dr., A Sanctus ear, O Lord' God on high


CALDARA, ANTONIO, A Terzetto-, HIMMEX, Choral, 'Come, O come, SOAPKR, Double Chant
and a Duet with sacred lays' SPOHB, Hymn, Quartett, & Chorus
a Duet and a Trio
CARISSIMI, Trio, I am well pleased* ITir.MPHRYS, PELHAM, Grand Chant STEFFANI,
'

'

TALLIS, Nunc Dimittis


'
('HERumNi, a Chorus, and a Trio JOMELLI, NICOLO, Duettino
Chant
CHILD, Dr., Anthem, O Lord, grant KENT, JAMES, a Solo, a Trio, and TRAVERS, Single
'

the king a long life' three Anthems TYE, Dr. CHRISTOPHER, Motet
'
Sacred
CLARK, JEREMIAH, Solo, How long LEMON, COLONEL, a Double Chant WERNER, Song, Resigna-
'

wilt thou forget me?' LOCK, MATTHEW, Anthem, 'Lord tion'

COOKE, Dr., A Double Chant let me know my end


'
WISE, MICHAEL, Three Anthems
'
Great WINTER, Air, '
Father of Heaven
CREYGHTON, Dr., Anthem, I will LUTHER, MARTIN, Hymn,
'

'

arise' God what do I see and hear


!
! ZINGARELII, Sacred Song.

are Biographical Sketches of the Authors whose compositions


it
Prefixed to each Volume
with Historical and Critical Accounts of the Works upon which then-
contains, together
respective reputations arc principally founded.

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